scholarly journals Vertical shear mixing in stellar radiative zones

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 167-173
Author(s):  
V. Prat ◽  
J. Guilet ◽  
M. Vialler ◽  
E. Müller

Jean-Paul Zahn’s formalism for vertical shear mixing is used in several stellar evolution codes, but the physics of the shear instability in stellar radiative zones is still not completely understood. Over the last few years, numerical simulations have provided new constraints on the shear instability, including the effect of thermal diffusion and chemical stratification. We present here new simulations that show the effect of viscosity on the vertical turbulent transport due to the shear instability.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (S307) ◽  
pp. 70-75
Author(s):  
V. Prat ◽  
F. Lignières ◽  
G. Lesur

AbstractMassive stars often experience fast rotation, which is known to induce turbulent mixing with a strong impact on the evolution of these stars. Local direct numerical simulations of turbulent transport in stellar radiative zones are a promising way to constrain phenomenological transport models currently used in many stellar evolution codes. We present here the results of such simulations of stably-stratified sheared turbulence taking notably into account the effects of thermal diffusion and chemical stratification. We also discuss the impact of theses results on stellar evolution theory.



Author(s):  
Kazuya Yamazaki ◽  
Hiroaki Miura

AbstractThe structures and formation mechanisms of cirrus banding are investigated by analyzing radiosonde observations, conducting high-resolution numerical experiments, and performing linear stability analyses. In all 29 cases of cirrus bands that were analyzed, radiosonde observational data indicate that statically unstable layers exist. The detected banding clouds were aligned nearly parallel to the vertical shear vector in the unstable layer. In high-resolution numerical experiments using the cloud-resolving model SCALE-RM, cirrus bands forming in the outflow layer of a tropical cyclone are explicitly simulated. The existence of statically unstable layers and band-parallel background vertical wind shear are commonly identified in the simulations. Sensitivity experiments and heat budget analyses demonstrated that the unstable stratification within the cirrus clouds was maintained by the cloud-radiation interactions. To reveal the behavior of fluid instabilities in the cirrus bands, linear stability analyses in a basic state constructed from the radiosonde observations were performed. The fastest-growing disturbance is highly similar to that of the previously known thermal-shear instability in a uniform and isolated unstable layer and the results obtained by radiosonde observations and numerical simulations. All of the results consistently indicate that thermal-shear instability is responsible for the formation of cirrus banding. Our results not only follow previous modeling studies but also provide observational support, quantification of the destabilization by the cloud-radiation interactions, as well as a theoretical basis of the thermal-shear instability in a complex environment near cirrus bands.



2020 ◽  
Vol 635 ◽  
pp. A133 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Park ◽  
V. Prat ◽  
S. Mathis

Context. Rotational mixing transports angular momentum and chemical elements in stellar radiative zones. It is one of the key processes for modern stellar evolution. In the past two decades, an emphasis has been placed on the turbulent transport induced by the vertical shear instability. However, instabilities arising from horizontal shear and the strength of the anisotropic turbulent transport that they may trigger remain relatively unexplored. The weakest point of this hydrodynamical theory of rotational mixing is the assumption that anisotropic turbulent transport is stronger in horizontal directions than in the vertical one. Aims. This paper investigates the combined effects of stable stratification, rotation, and thermal diffusion on the horizontal shear instabilities that are obtained and discussed in the context of stellar radiative zones. Methods. The eigenvalue problem describing linear instabilities of a flow with a hyperbolic-tangent horizontal shear profile was solved numerically for a wide range of parameters. When possible, the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin–Jeffreys (WKBJ) approximation was applied to provide analytical asymptotic dispersion relations in both the nondiffusive and highly diffusive limits. As a first step, we consider a polar f-plane where the gravity and rotation vector are aligned. Results. Two types of instabilities are identified: the inflectional and inertial instabilities. The inflectional instability that arises from the inflection point (i.e., the zero second derivative of the shear flow) is the most unstable when at a zero vertical wavenumber and a finite wavenumber in the streamwise direction along the imposed-flow direction. While the maximum two-dimensional growth rate is independent of the stratification, rotation rate, and thermal diffusivity, the three-dimensional inflectional instability is destabilized by stable stratification, while it is stabilized by thermal diffusion. The inertial instability is rotationally driven, and a WKBJ analysis reveals that its growth rate reaches the maximum value of √f(1 − f) in the inviscid limit as the vertical wavenumber goes to infinity, where f is the dimensionless Coriolis parameter. The inertial instability for a finite vertical wavenumber is stabilized as the stratification increases, whereas it is destabilized by the thermal diffusion. Furthermore, we found a selfsimilarity in both the inflectional and inertial instabilities based on the rescaled parameter PeN2 with the Péclet number Pe and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency N.



Author(s):  
Dong Li ◽  
Ziming Xu ◽  
Ke Zhang ◽  
Zeyu Zhang ◽  
Jinxin Zhou ◽  
...  

Environmental crosswind can greatly affect the development of aircraft wake vortex pair. Previous numerical simulations and experiments have shown that the nonlinear vertical shear of the crosswind velocity can affect the dissipation rate of the aircraft wake vortex, causing each vortex of the vortex pair descent with different velocity magnitude, which will lead to the asymmetrical settlement and tilt of the wake vortex pair. Through numerical simulations, this article finds that uniform crosswind convection and linear vertical shear crosswind convection can also have an effect on the strength of the vortex. This effect is inversely proportional to the cube of the vortex spacing, so it is more intense on small separation vortex pair. In addition, the superposition of crosswind and vortex-induced velocities will lead to the asymmetrical pressure distribution around the vortex pair, which will also cause the tilt of the vortex pair. Furthermore, a new analysis method for wake vortex is proposed, which can be used to predict the vortex trajectory.





2016 ◽  
Vol 806 ◽  
pp. 165-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corentin Herbert ◽  
Raffaele Marino ◽  
Duane Rosenberg ◽  
Annick Pouquet

We study the partition of energy between waves and vortices in stratified turbulence, with or without rotation, for a variety of parameters, focusing on the behaviour of the waves and vortices in the inverse cascade of energy towards the large scales. To this end, we use direct numerical simulations in a cubic box at a Reynolds number $Re\approx 1000$, with the ratio between the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N$ and the inertial frequency $f$ varying from $1/4$ to 20, together with a purely stratified run. The Froude number, measuring the strength of the stratification, varies within the range $0.02\leqslant Fr\leqslant 0.32$. We find that the inverse cascade is dominated by the slow quasi-geostrophic modes. Their energy spectra and fluxes exhibit characteristics of an inverse cascade, even though their energy is not conserved. Surprisingly, the slow vortices still dominate when the ratio $N/f$ increases, also in the stratified case, although less and less so. However, when $N/f$ increases, the inverse cascade of the slow modes becomes weaker and weaker, and it vanishes in the purely stratified case. We discuss how the disappearance of the inverse cascade of energy with increasing $N/f$ can be interpreted in terms of the waves and vortices, and identify the main effects that can explain this transition based on both inviscid invariants arguments and viscous effects due to vertical shear.



2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (2) ◽  
pp. 1841-1853
Author(s):  
Natascha Manger ◽  
Hubert Klahr ◽  
Wilhelm Kley ◽  
Mario Flock

ABSTRACT Theoretical models of protoplanetary discs have shown the vertical shear instability (VSI) to be a prime candidate to explain turbulence in the dead zone of the disc. However, simulations of the VSI have yet to show consistent levels of key disc turbulence parameters like the stress-to-pressure ratio α. We aim to reconcile these different values by performing a parameter study on the VSI with focus on the disc density gradient p and aspect ratio h = H/R. We use full 2π 3D simulations of the disc for chosen set of both parameters. All simulations are evolved for 1000 reference orbits, at a resolution of 18 cells per h. We find that the saturated stress-to-pressure ratio in our simulations is dependent on the disc aspect ratio with a strong scaling of α∝h2.6, in contrast to the traditional α model, where viscosity scales as ν∝αh2 with a constant α. We also observe consistent formation of large scale vortices across all investigated parameters. The vortices show uniformly aspect ratios of χ ≈ 10 and radial widths of approximately 1.5H. With our findings we can reconcile the different values reported for the stress-to-pressure ratio from both isothermal and full radiation hydrodynamics models, and show long-term evolution effects of the VSI that could aide in the formation of planetesimals.





2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (9) ◽  
pp. 2393-2406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Eden ◽  
Manita Chouksey ◽  
Dirk Olbers

AbstractGravity wave emission by geostrophically balanced flow is diagnosed in numerical simulations of lateral and vertical shear instabilities. The diagnostic method in use allows for a separation of balanced flow and residual wave signal up to fourth order in the Rossby number (Ro). While evidence is found for a small but finite gravity wave emission from balanced flow in a single-layer model with large lateral shear and large Ro, a vertically resolved model with moderate velocity amplitudes appropriate to the interior ocean hardly shows any wave emission. Only when static instabilities generated by the shear instability of the balanced flow are allowed can a gravity wave signal similar to the ones reported in earlier studies be detected in the vertically resolved case. This result suggests a relatively small role of spontaneous wave emission in the classical sense of Lighthill radiation, and emphasizes the role of convective or symmetric instabilities during frontogenesis for the generation of internal gravity waves in the ocean and atmosphere.



2006 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 1036-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sim D. Aberson ◽  
Jeffrey B. Halverson

Abstract A photograph of vertically aligned Kelvin–Helmholtz billows in the eastern eyewall of Hurricane Erin on 10 September 2001 is presented. The vertical shear instability in the horizontal winds necessary to produce the billows is confirmed with a high-altitude dropwindsonde observation. This shear instability is not known to be common in tropical cyclone eyewalls and is likely only in cases with a very large eyewall tilt. However, research and reconnaissance aircraft pilots need to be aware of the possibility of their existence, along with other types of hazardous conditions, in such rare circumstances.



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