TY - JOUR
T1 - Boundary layers in turbulent vertical convection at high Prandtl number
AU - Howland, Christopher J.
AU - Ng, Chong Shen
AU - Verzicco, Roberto
AU - Lohse, Detlef
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 804283). We acknowledge PRACE for awarding us access to Joliot-Curie at GENCI@CEA, France, and this work was also sponsored by NWO Science for the use of supercomputer facilities.
Publisher Copyright:
©
PY - 2022/1/10
Y1 - 2022/1/10
N2 - Many environmental flows arise due to natural convection at a vertical surface, from flows in buildings to dissolving ice faces at marine-terminating glaciers. We use three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of a vertical channel with differentially heated walls to investigate such convective, turbulent boundary layers. Through the implementation of a multiple-resolution technique, we are able to perform simulations at a wide range of Prandtl numbers. This allows us to distinguish the parameter dependences of the horizontal heat flux and the boundary layer widths in terms of the Rayleigh number and Prandtl number. For the considered parameter range, we find the flow to be consistent with a 'buoyancy-controlled' regime where the heat flux is independent of the wall separation. For given, the heat flux is found to scale linearly with the friction velocity. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for the parameterisation of heat and salt fluxes at vertical ice-ocean interfaces.
AB - Many environmental flows arise due to natural convection at a vertical surface, from flows in buildings to dissolving ice faces at marine-terminating glaciers. We use three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of a vertical channel with differentially heated walls to investigate such convective, turbulent boundary layers. Through the implementation of a multiple-resolution technique, we are able to perform simulations at a wide range of Prandtl numbers. This allows us to distinguish the parameter dependences of the horizontal heat flux and the boundary layer widths in terms of the Rayleigh number and Prandtl number. For the considered parameter range, we find the flow to be consistent with a 'buoyancy-controlled' regime where the heat flux is independent of the wall separation. For given, the heat flux is found to scale linearly with the friction velocity. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results for the parameterisation of heat and salt fluxes at vertical ice-ocean interfaces.
KW - buoyant boundary layers
KW - turbulent boundary layers
KW - turbulent convection
KW - UT-Hybrid-D
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119911623&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/jfm.2021.952
DO - 10.1017/jfm.2021.952
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85119911623
VL - 930
JO - Journal of fluid mechanics
JF - Journal of fluid mechanics
SN - 0022-1120
M1 - A32
ER -