Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Xuan Zhang; Dennis P.M. Van Gils; Susanne Horn; Marcel Wedi; Lukas Zwirner; Guenter Ahlers; Robert E. Ecke; Stephan Weiss; Eberhard Bodenschatz; Olga Shishkina

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.084505

Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Xuan Zhang, Dennis P.M. Van Gils, Susanne Horn, Marcel Wedi, Lukas Zwirner, Guenter Ahlers, Robert E. Ecke, Stephan Weiss, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Olga Shishkina^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics of Fluids

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

6 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one, whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like Ra1/4Ek2/3 where the Ekman number Ek decreases with increasing rotation rate.

Original language	English
Article number	084505
Journal	Physical review letters
Volume	124
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.084505
Publication status	Published - 27 Feb 2020

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Zhang, X., Van Gils, D. P. M., Horn, S., Wedi, M., Zwirner, L., Ahlers, G., ... Shishkina, O. (2020). Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection. Physical review letters, 124(8), [084505]. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.084505

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abstract = "For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh-B{\'e}nard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one, whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like Ra1/4Ek2/3 where the Ekman number Ek decreases with increasing rotation rate.",

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Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection. / Zhang, Xuan; Van Gils, Dennis P.M.; Horn, Susanne; Wedi, Marcel; Zwirner, Lukas; Ahlers, Guenter; Ecke, Robert E.; Weiss, Stephan; Bodenschatz, Eberhard; Shishkina, Olga.

In: Physical review letters, Vol. 124, No. 8, 084505, 27.02.2020.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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T1 - Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

AU - Zhang, Xuan

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AU - Ahlers, Guenter

AU - Ecke, Robert E.

AU - Weiss, Stephan

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AU - Shishkina, Olga

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AB - For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one, whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like Ra1/4Ek2/3 where the Ekman number Ek decreases with increasing rotation rate.

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