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Penetrative turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in two and three dimensions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2019
Abstract
Penetrative turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection which depends on the density maximum of water near $4^{\circ }\text{C}$ is studied using two-dimensional and three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The working fluid is water near
$4\,^{\circ }\text{C}$ with Prandtl number
$Pr=11.57$. The considered Rayleigh numbers
$Ra$ range from
$10^{7}$ to
$10^{10}$. The density inversion parameter
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$ varies from 0 to 0.9. It is found that the ratio of the top and bottom thermal boundary-layer thicknesses (
$F_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{t}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{b}^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}}$) increases with increasing
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$, and the relationship between
$F_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$ and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$ seems to be independent of
$Ra$. The centre temperature
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}$ is enhanced compared to that of Oberbeck–Boussinesq cases, as
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}$ is related to
$F_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}$ with
$1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}=1/F_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}+1$,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{c}$ is also found to have a universal relationship with
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$ which is independent of
$Ra$. Both the Nusselt number
$Nu$ and the Reynolds number
$Re$ decrease with increasing
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$, the normalized Nusselt number
$Nu(\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m})/Nu(0)$ and Reynolds number
$Re(\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m})/Re(0)$ also have universal relationships with
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$ which seem to be independent of both
$Ra$ and the aspect ratio
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$. The scaling exponents of
$Nu\sim Ra^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$ and
$Re\sim Ra^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}}$ are found to be insensitive to
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{m}$ despite of the remarkable change of the flow organizations.
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