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1. Steady Rayleigh–Bénard convection between stress-free boundaries

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2020.812  

   Wen, Baole ; Goluskin, David ; LeDuc, Matthew ; Chini, Gregory P. ; Doering, Charles R. ( December 2020 , Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   null (Ed.)

   Steady two-dimensional Rayleigh–Bénard convection between stress-free isothermal boundaries is studied via numerical computations. We explore properties of steady convective rolls with aspect ratios ${\rm \pi} /5\leqslant \varGamma \leqslant 4{\rm \pi}$ , where $\varGamma$ is the width-to-height ratio for a pair of counter-rotating rolls, over eight orders of magnitude in the Rayleigh number, $10^3\leqslant Ra\leqslant 10^{11}$ , and four orders of magnitude in the Prandtl number, $10^{-2}\leqslant Pr\leqslant 10^2$ . At large $Ra$ where steady rolls are dynamically unstable, the computed rolls display $Ra \rightarrow \infty$ asymptotic scaling. In this regime, the Nusselt number $Nu$ that measures heat transport scales as $Ra^{1/3}$ uniformly in $Pr$ . The prefactor of this scaling depends on $\varGamma$ and is largest at $\varGamma \approx 1.9$ . The Reynolds number $Re$ for large- $Ra$ rolls scales as $Pr^{-1} Ra^{2/3}$ with a prefactor that is largest at $\varGamma \approx 4.5$ . All of these large- $Ra$ features agree quantitatively with the semi-analytical asymptotic solutions constructed by Chini & Cox ( Phys. Fluids , vol. 21, 2009, 083603). Convergence of $Nu$ and $Re$ to their asymptotic scalings occurs more slowly when $Pr$ is larger and when $\varGamma$ is smaller. 

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2. Small scale quasigeostrophic convective turbulence at large Rayleigh number

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.093502  

   Oliver, Tobias G. ; Jacobi, Adrienne S. ; Julien, Keith ; Calkins, Michael A. ( September 2023 , Physical Review Fluids)

   A numerical investigation of an asymptotically reduced model for quasigeostrophic Rayleigh-Bénard convection is conducted in which the depth-averaged flows are numerically suppressed by modifying the governing equations. At the largest accessible values of the Rayleigh number Ra, the Reynolds number and Nusselt number show evidence of approaching the diffusion-free scalings of Re ∼ RaE/Pr and Nu ∼ Pr−1/2Ra3/2E2, respectively, where E is the Ekman number and Pr is the Prandtl number. For large Ra, the presence of depth-invariant flows, such as large-scale vortices, yield heat and momentum transport scalings that exceed those of the diffusion-free scaling laws. The Taylor microscale does not vary significantly with increasing Ra, whereas the integral length scale grows weakly. The computed length scales remain O(1) with respect to the linearly unstable critical wave number; we therefore conclude that these scales remain viscously controlled. We do not find a point-wise Coriolis-inertia-Archimedean (CIA) force balance in the turbulent regime; interior dynamics are instead dominated by horizontal advection (inertia), vortex stretching (Coriolis) and the vertical pressure gradient. A secondary, subdominant balance between the Archimedean buoyancy force and the viscous force occurs in the interior and the ratio of the root mean square (rms) of these two forces is found to approach unity with increasing Ra. This secondary balance is attributed to the turbulent fluid interior acting as the dominant control on the heat transport. These findings indicate that a pointwise CIA balance does not occur in the high Rayleigh number regime of quasigeostrophic convection in the plane layer geometry. Instead, simulations are characterized by what may be termed a nonlocal CIA balance in which the buoyancy force is dominant within the thermal boundary layers and is spatially separated from the interior Coriolis and inertial forces. 

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3. Thermal convection over fractal surfaces

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2020.826  

   Toppaladoddi, Srikanth ; Wells, Andrew J. ; Doering, Charles R. ; Wettlaufer, John S. ( January 2021 , Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   null (Ed.)

   We use well resolved numerical simulations with the lattice Boltzmann method to study Rayleigh–Bénard convection in cells with a fractal boundary in two dimensions for $Pr = 1$ and $Ra \in \left [10^7, 10^{10}\right ]$ , where Pr and Ra are the Prandtl and Rayleigh numbers. The fractal boundaries are functions characterized by power spectral densities $S(k)$ that decay with wavenumber, $k$ , as $S(k) \sim k^{p}$ ( $p < 0$ ). The degree of roughness is quantified by the exponent $p$ with $p < -3$ for smooth (differentiable) surfaces and $-3 \le p < -1$ for rough surfaces with Hausdorff dimension $D_f=\frac {1}{2}(p+5)$ . By computing the exponent $\beta$ using power law fits of $Nu \sim Ra^{\beta }$ , where $Nu$ is the Nusselt number, we find that the heat transport scaling increases with roughness through the top two decades of $Ra \in \left [10^8, 10^{10}\right ]$ . For $p$ $= -3.0$ , $-2.0$ and $-1.5$ we find $\beta = 0.288 \pm 0.005, 0.329 \pm 0.006$ and $0.352 \pm 0.011$ , respectively. We also find that the Reynolds number, $Re$ , scales as $Re \sim Ra^{\xi }$ , where $\xi \approx 0.57$ over $Ra \in \left [10^7, 10^{10}\right ]$ , for all $p$ used in the study. For a given value of $p$ , the averaged $Nu$ and $Re$ are insensitive to the specific realization of the roughness. 

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4. Comparison of quasi-geostrophic, hybrid and 3-D models of planetary core convection

   https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggac141  

   Barrois, O. ; Gastine, T. ; Finlay, C. C. ( April 2022 , Geophysical Journal International)

   We present investigations of rapidly rotating convection in a thick spherical shell geometry relevant to planetary cores, comparing results from quasi-geostrophic (QG), 3-D and hybrid QG-3D models. The 170 reported calculations span Ekman numbers, Ek, between 10−4 and 10−10, Rayleigh numbers, Ra, between 2 and 150 times supercritical and Prandtl numbers, Pr, between 10 and 10−2. The default boundary conditions are no-slip at both the ICB and the CMB for the velocity field, with fixed temperatures at the ICB and the CMB. Cases driven by both homogeneous and inhomogeneous CMB heat flux patterns are also explored, the latter including lateral variations, as measured by Q*, the peak-to-peak amplitude of the pattern divided by its mean, taking values up to 5. The QG model is based on the open-source pizza code. We extend this in a hybrid approach to include the temperature field on a 3-D grid. In general, we find convection is dominated by zonal jets at mid-depths in the shell, with thermal Rossby waves prominent close to the outer boundary when the driving is weaker. For the thick spherical shell geometry studied here the hybrid method is best suited for studying convection at modest forcing, $Ra \le 10 \, Ra_c$ when Pr = 1, and departs from the 3-D model results at higher Ra, displaying systematically lower heat transport characterized by lower Nusselt and Reynolds numbers. We find that the lack of equatorially-antisymmetric motions and z-correlations between temperature and velocity in the buoyancy force contributes to the weaker flows in the hybrid formulation. On the other hand, the QG models yield broadly similar results to the 3-D models, for the specific aspect ratio and range of Rayleigh numbers explored here. We cannot point to major disagreements between these two data sets at Pr ≥ 0.1, with the QG model effectively more strongly driven than the hybrid case due to its cylindrically averaged thermal boundary conditions. When Pr is decreased, the range of agreement between the hybrid and 3-D models expands, for example up to $Ra \le 15 \, Ra_c$ at Pr = 0.1, indicating the hybrid method may be better suited to study convection in the low Pr regime. We thus observe a transition between two regimes: (i) at Pr ≥ 0.1 the QG and 3-D models agree in the studied range of Ra/Rac while the hybrid model fails when $Ra\gt 15\, Ra_c$ and (ii) at Pr = 0.01 the QG and 3-D models disagree for $Ra\gt 10\, Ra_c$ while the hybrid and 3-D models agree fairly well up to $Ra \sim 20\, Ra_c$. Models that include laterally varying heat flux at the outer boundary reproduce regional convection patterns that compare well with those found in similarly forced 3-D models. Previously proposed scaling laws for rapidly rotating convection are tested; our simulations are overall well described by a triple balance between Coriolis, inertia and Archimedean forces with the length-scale of the convection following the diffusion-free Rhines-scaling. The magnitude of Pr affects the number and the size of the jets with larger structures obtained at lower Pr. Higher velocities and lower heat transport are seen on decreasing Pr with the scaling behaviour of the convective velocity displaying a strong dependence on Pr. This study is an intermediate step towards a hybrid model of core convection also including 3-D magnetic effects.

    

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5. Onset of thermal convection in non-colloidal suspensions

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2021.59  

   Kang, Changwoo ; Yoshikawa, Harunori N. ; Mirbod, Parisa ( May 2021 , Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   null (Ed.)

   This study explores thermal convection in suspensions of neutrally buoyant, non-colloidal suspensions confined between horizontal plates. A constitutive diffusion equation is used to model the dynamics of the particles suspended in a viscous fluid and it is coupled with the flow equations. We employ a simple model that was proposed by Metzger, Rahli & Yin ( J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 724, 2013, pp. 527–552) for the effective thermal diffusivity of suspensions. This model considers the effect of shear-induced diffusion and gives the thermal diffusivity increasing linearly with the thermal Péclet number ( Pe ) and the particle volume fraction ( ϕ ). Both linear stability analysis and numerical simulation based on the mathematical models are performed for various bulk particle volume fractions $({\phi _b})$ ranging from 0 to 0.3. The critical Rayleigh number $(R{a_c})$ grows gradually by increasing ${\phi _b}$ from the critical value $(R{a_c} = 1708)$ for a pure Newtonian fluid, while the critical wavenumber $({k_c})$ remains constant at 3.12. The transition from the conduction state of suspensions is subcritical, whereas it is supercritical for the convection in a pure Newtonian fluid $({\phi _b} = 0)$ . The heat transfer in moderately dense suspensions $({\phi _b} = 0.2\text{--}0.3)$ is significantly enhanced by convection rolls for small Rayleigh number ( Ra ) close to $R{a_c}$ . We also found a power-law increase of the Nusselt number ( Nu ) with Ra , namely, $Nu\sim R{a^b}$ for relatively large values of Ra where the scaling exponent b decreases with ${\phi _b}$ . Finally, it turns out that the shear-induced migration of particles can modify the heat transfer. 

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