Mean flow structure in horizontal convection

2017 ◽  
Vol 812 ◽  
pp. 525-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Shishkina

We analyse the global flow structures in horizontal convection systems, where the heat supply and removal takes place through separated parts of a lower horizontal surface of a fluid layer. The results are based on direct numerical simulations for the length-to-height aspect ratio of the convection cell $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}=10$, Rayleigh number $\mathit{Ra}$ from $3\times 10^{8}$ to $3\times 10^{11}$ and Prandtl number $\mathit{Pr}$ from 0.05 to 50. The structure of the mean flows in horizontal convection is described in terms of time-averaged spatial distributions of the temperature, velocity, kinetic energy, thermal and kinetic dissipation rates. A possible scenario of transition to turbulent horizontal convection in the whole convection cell of a large aspect ratio is discussed.

Author(s):  
D. Furey ◽  
P. Atsavapranee ◽  
K. Cipolla

Stereo Particle Image velocimetry data was collected over high aspect ratio flexible cylinders (L/a = 1.5 to 3 × 105) to evaluate the axial development of the turbulent boundary layer where the boundary layer thickness becomes significantly larger than the cylinder diameter (δ/a>>1). The flexible cylinders are approximately neutrally buoyant and have an initial length of 152 m and radii of 0.45 mm and 1.25 mm. The cylinders were towed at speeds ranging from 3.8 to 15.4 m/sec in the David Taylor Model Basin. The analysis of the SPIV data required a several step procedure to evaluate the cylinder boundary flow. First, the characterization of the flow field from the towing strut is required. This evaluation provides the residual mean velocities and turbulence levels caused by the towing hardware at each speed and axial location. These values, called tare values, are necessary for comparing to the cylinder flow results. Second, the cylinder flow fields are averaged together and the averaged tare fields are subtracted out to remove strut-induced ambient flow effects. Prior to averaging, the cylinder flow fields are shifted to collocate the cylinder within the field. Since the boundary layer develops slowly, all planes of data occurring within each 10 meter increment of the cylinder length are averaged together to produce the mean boundary layer flow. Corresponding fields from multiple runs executed using the same experimental parameters are also averaged. This flow is analyzed to evaluate the level of axisymmetry in the data and determine if small changes in cylinder angle affect the mean flow development. With axisymmetry verified, the boundary flow is further averaged azimuthally around the cylinder to produce mean boundary layer profiles. Finally, the fluctuating velocity levels are evaluated for the flow with the cylinder and compared to the fluctuating velocity levels in the tare data. This paper will first discuss the data analysis techniques for the tare data and the averaging methods implemented. Second, the data analysis considerations will be presented for the cylinder data and the averaging and cylinder tracking techniques. These results are used to extract relevant boundary layer parameters including δ, δ* and θ. Combining these results with wall shear and momentum thickness values extracted from averaged cylinder drag data, the boundary layer can be well characterized.


2016 ◽  
Vol 795 ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory J. Sheard ◽  
Wisam K. Hussam ◽  
Tzekih Tsai

The effect of rotation on horizontal convection in a cylindrical enclosure is investigated numerically. The thermal forcing is applied radially on the bottom boundary from the coincident axes of rotation and geometric symmetry of the enclosure. First, a spectral element method is used to obtain axisymmetric basic flow solutions to the time-dependent incompressible Navier–Stokes equations coupled via a Boussinesq approximation to a thermal transport equation for temperature. Solutions are obtained primarily at Rayleigh number $\mathit{Ra}=10^{9}$ and rotation parameters up to $Q=60$ (where $Q$ is a non-dimensional ratio between thermal boundary layer thickness and Ekman layer depth) at a fixed Prandtl number $\mathit{Pr}=6.14$ representative of water and enclosure height-to-radius ratio $H/R=0.4$. The axisymmetric solutions are consistently steady state at these parameters, and transition from a regime unaffected by rotation to an intermediate regime occurs at $Q\approx 1$ in which variation in thermal boundary layer thickness and Nusselt number are shown to be governed by a scaling proposed by Stern (1975, Ocean Circulation Physics. Academic). In this regime an increase in $Q$ sees the flow accumulate available potential energy and more strongly satisfy an inviscid change in potential energy criterion for baroclinic instability. At the strongest $Q$ the flow is dominated by rotation, accumulation of available potential energy ceases and horizontal convection is suppressed. A linear stability analysis reveals several instability mode branches, with dominant wavenumbers typically scaling with $Q$. Analysis of contributing terms of an azimuthally averaged perturbation kinetic energy equation applied to instability eigenmodes reveals that energy production by shear in the axisymmetric mean flow is negligible relative to that produced by conversion of available potential energy from the mean flow. An evolution equation for the quantity that facilitates this exchange, the vertical advective buoyancy flux, reveals that a baroclinic instability mechanism dominates over $5\lesssim Q\lesssim 30$, whereas stronger and weaker rotations are destabilised by vertical thermal gradients in the mean flow.


1975 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 801-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. S. Bradbury ◽  
A. H. Khadem

In an attempt to explain the discrepancies that have been observed in the spread of nominally axisymmetric jets, an experimental investigation has been carried out in which the effects of a number of factors which it was thought might be important to jet development have been studied. These factors included the nozzle boundary-layer thickness, turbulence level and convergence. However, over the limited range of the tests, it was found that none of these factors had a very strong influence on the jet development. By contrast, the insertion of small rectangular tabs into the jet flow on the nozzle perimeter was found to have a very profound effect on the jet development. In particular, it was found that just two tabs produced gross distortions in the jet development resulting in the jet almost splitting in two with high velocity regions on either side of the diameter joining the tabs. Some explanations for this effect based on further tests with wedges are put forward.In addition to the measurements of the mean flow field, a few spectrum and correlation measurements are reported for jets both from a clean nozzle and also from a nozzle with two tabs. In the former tests, evidence additional to the results of other experimenters was found for the existence of flow structures which have some coherence around the entire circumference of the jet. It has been suggested that these ‘vortex rings’ or ‘puffs’ may be of some importance in producing jet noise and it seems that the effect of inserting tabs is to prevent the occurrence of these structures.


Author(s):  
Sedem Kumahor ◽  
Mark F. Tachie

Abstract Turbulent flows around a square cylinder and a rectangular cylinder with a streamwise aspect ratio of 5 in a uniform flow were investigated using time-resolved particle image velocimetry. The Reynolds number based on the cylinder height and oncoming flow velocity was 16200. Similarities and differences in the flow dynamics over the cylinders and in the near wake region were examined in terms of the mean flow, Reynolds stresses and triple velocity correlations. The budget of turbulent kinetic energy as well as temporal and spectral analyses were also performed. The results show that the primary, secondary and wake vortexes are smaller for the square cylinder compared to the large aspect ratio cylinder. There are regions of elevated Reynolds stresses and triple velocity correlations along the mean separating streamlines, and the magnitudes of these statistics are an order of magnitude higher over the square cylinder compared to the large aspect ratio cylinder. The topology of the triple velocity correlations shows low-speed ejection and high-speed sweep events, respectively, transporting instantaneous Reynolds normal stresses away from the mean separating streamline into the free-stream and toward the cylinder surface, regardless of aspect ratio. Near the leading and trailing edges of both cylinders, regions of negative turbulence production are observed and the dominant components contributing to this occurrence are discussed. Temporal autocorrelation coefficients of the streamwise and vertical velocity fluctuations show a periodic trend, with a periodicity that is directly linked to the Kármán shedding frequency and its second harmonic.


1982 ◽  
Vol 37 (8) ◽  
pp. 752-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. H. Busse

The instability of convection rolls in a fluid layer heatet from below is studied in the case where the layer rotates about an axis slightly inclined with respect to the vertical. The inclination destroys the horizontal isotropy of the layer, but the instability of rolls found by Küppers and Lortz [1] is little affected as long as the angle of inclination is small. A new effect is the generation of mean Reynolds stresses by rolls not aligned with the horizontal component of the rotation vector. The mean flow exhibits a vorticity of the same sign as the horizontal component of rotation and agrees qualitatively with the mean flow found in the numerical experiments of Hathaway and Somerville [2]


2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. V. Kalashnik ◽  
O. G. Chkhetiani
Keyword(s):  
The Mean ◽  

2015 ◽  
Vol 771 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. G. Rooney

The physical interpretation of velocity potential is used to propose a model of the mean flow boundary of a row of plumes or jets. Generalised plume equations incorporating the plume area and net entrainment are closed with an entrainment assumption. The resulting model is shown to approach the appropriate limiting similarity solutions above and below the merging height in an unstratified environment. The virtual origin of the far-field flow is hence predicted. An application to plume rise in channels of varying aspect ratio shows that the model may be used to predict the depth of the outflow along the channel.


2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heath Chalmers ◽  
Xingjun Fang ◽  
Mark F. Tachie

Abstract Separated and reattached turbulent flows induced by two-dimensional forward–backward-facing steps (FBFS) with different streamwise lengths submerged in a thick turbulent boundary layer (TBL) are investigated using time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV). The aspect ratios (AR) of the step range from 1 to 8, and the Reynolds number based on the freestream velocity and step height is 13 200. The thickness of the incoming turbulent boundary layer is 6.5 times the step height. The effects of varying aspect ratio of the steps on the mean flow, principal stretching, Reynolds stresses, triple velocity correlation, two-point autocorrelation, and unsteadiness of turbulent separation bubbles are studied. The results indicate that the mean flow reattaches over the step for FBFS with aspect ratios of 2 and higher. Two local peaks of Reynolds stresses occur irrespective of AR, and for a sufficiently large AR, a third local peak of Reynolds stresses appear in the shear layer emanating from the trailing edge of the bluff bodies. The streamwise decay of Reynolds stresses is slower for smaller AR cases. Incoming coherent structure is strongly disturbed near an inclined edge where principal stretching switches orientation abruptly. The temporal variation of the first proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) mode and reverse flow area over the bluff bodies shows remarkable correlation, which signifies the flapping motion of separation bubble.


Author(s):  
Heath Chalmers ◽  
Xingjun Fang ◽  
Mark F. Tachie

Abstract Separated and reattached turbulent flows induced by two-dimensional forward-backward-facing steps with different streamwise lengths submerged in a thick turbulent boundary layer are investigated using a time-resolved particle image velocimetry. The examined aspect ratios of the step range from 1 to 8, and the Reynolds number based on the free-stream velocity and step height is 13 200. The thickness of the oncoming turbulent boundary layer is 6.5 times the step height. The effects of varying aspect ratio of the steps on the mean flow, Reynolds stresses, triple correlations and unsteadiness of turbulent separation bubbles are studied. It was found that the mean flow reattaches over the step for forward-backward facing steps with aspect ratios of 2 and higher. The temporal variation of the first proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) mode and reverse flow area, which is used to examine the flapping motion of separation bubble, shows remarkable synchronization.


2010 ◽  
Vol 662 ◽  
pp. 384-397
Author(s):  
ALESSANDRO STOCCHINO

The formation and evolution of double-diffusive interleaving is experimentally investigated with the purpose of analysing the influence of the convective flow structures, at different scales, on the mean flow. Recently, Krishnamurti (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 558, 2006, p. 113) has shown that, in the case of a continuous stratification experiment, the Reynolds stresses, due to convective flow patches, are able to vertically transport horizontal momentum, maintaining the mean flow. This mechanism is similar to the turbulent wind observed in thermal convection. In this study, the interleaving is produced using the classical set-up of Ruddick & Turner (Deep-Sea Res., vol. 558, 1979, p. 903). The dam-break experiments better resemble the case of oceanic fronts, where interleaving is commonly observed. The flow structures are investigated by measuring the two-dimensional flow fields using the particle image velocimetry technique. The resulting two-dimensional vector fields reveal complex fine-scale flow structures, and convective patterns are observed inside the finger-favourable layers. Vortical structures at scales comparable with the layer thickness are embedded in these regions and seem to be responsible for sustaining the horizontal mean flow against the viscous dissipations, especially in a region close to the layer nose. A spectral analysis of the flow fields suggest that the energy balance is governed by an inverse energy cascade, which implies a transfer of energy from the smaller scales to the larger scales (mean flow).


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