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Plume emission statistics in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

Erwin P. van der Poel ,
Roberto Verzicco ,
Siegfried Grossmann  and
Detlef Lohse
Erwin P. van der Poel*
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids group, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute and J.M. Burgers Centre of Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Roberto Verzicco
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids group, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute and J.M. Burgers Centre of Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Via del Politecnico 1, Roma 00133, Italy
Siegfried Grossmann
Affiliation:
Fachbereich Physik, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Renthof 6, D-35032 Marburg, Germany
Detlef Lohse
Affiliation:
Physics of Fluids group, Department of Science and Technology, Mesa+ Institute and J.M. Burgers Centre of Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent thermal convection in a $\mathit{Pr}=0.7$ fluid up to $\mathit{Ra}=10^{12}$ are used to study the statistics of thermal plumes. At various vertical locations in a cylindrical set-up with aspect ratio ${\it\Gamma}=\text{width}/\text{height}=1/3$, plumes are identified and their properties extracted. It is found that plumes are much less likely to be emitted from plate regions with large wind shear. Close to the plates, the plumes have a unimodal log–normal distribution, whereas at more central locations the distribution becomes weakly bimodal, which can be traced back to clustering of the plumes and influence of the large-scale circulation. The number of hot plumes decreases with height. The width of the plumes scales with $\mathit{Ra}$ approximately as $\mathit{Nu}^{-1}$, indicating that it is determined by the thermal boundary layer thickness.

JFM classification

Convection: Plumes/thermals Turbulent Flows: Turbulent convection
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 772 , 10 June 2015 , pp. 5 - 15
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Copyright
© 2015 Cambridge University Press 

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