Maximal heat transfer between two parallel plates

Abstract

The divergence-free time-independent velocity vector field has been determined so as to maximise heat transfer between two parallel plates of a constant temperature difference under the constraint of fixed total enstrophy. The present variational problem is the same as that first formulated by Hassanzadeh $\it et{\ }al$. (2014); however, a search range of optimal states has been extended to a three-dimensional velocity field. The scaling of the Nusselt number $Nu$ with the P\'eclet number $Pe$ (i.e., the square root of the non-dimensionalised enstrophy with thermal diffusion timescale), $Nu\sim Pe^{2/3}$, has been found in the three-dimensional optimal states, corresponding to the asymptotic scaling with the Rayleigh number $Ra$, $Nu\sim Ra^{1/2}$, in extremely-high-$Ra$ convective turbulence, and thus to the Taylor energy dissipation law in high-Reynolds-number turbulence. At $Pe\sim10^{0}$, a two-dimensional array of large-scale convection rolls provides maximal heat transfer. A three-dimensional optimal solution emerges from bifurcation on the two-dimensional solution branch at higher $Pe$. At $Pe\gtrsim10^{3}$, the optimised velocity fields consist of convection cells with hierarchical self-similar vortical structures, and the temperature fields exhibit a logarithmic mean profile near the walls.