arXiv subjects

Olga Shishkina

Publications and source records attributed to Olga Shishkina.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Scaling in internally heated convection: a unifying theory

We offer a unifying theory for turbulent purely internally heated convection, generalizing the unifying theories of Grossmann and Lohse (2000, 2001) for Rayleigh--Bénard turbulence and of Shishkina, Grossmann and Lohse (2016) for turbulent horizontal convection, which are both based on the splitting of the kinetic and thermal dissipation rates in respective boundary and bulk contributions. We obtain the mean temperature of the system and the Reynolds number (which are the response parameters) as function of the control parameters, namely the internal thermal driving strength (called, when nondimensionalized, the Rayleigh--Roberts number) and the Prandtl number. The results of the theory are consistent with our direct numerical simulations.

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arXiv2020

Multiple states in turbulent large-aspect ratio thermal convection: What determines the number of convection rolls?

Recent findings suggest that wall-bounded turbulent flow can take different statistically stationary turbulent states, with different transport properties, even for the very same values of the control parameters. What state the system takes depends on the initial conditions. Here we analyze the multiple states in large-aspect ratio ($Γ$) two-dimensional turbulent Rayleigh--Bénard flow with no-slip plates and horizontally periodic boundary conditions as model system. We determine the number $n$ of convection rolls, their mean aspect ratios $Γ_r = Γ/n$, and the corresponding transport properties of the flow (i.e., the Nusselt number $Nu$), as function of the control parameters Rayleigh ($Ra$) and Prandtl number. The effective scaling exponent $β$ in $Nu \sim Ra^β$ is found to depend on the realized state and thus $Γ_r$, with a larger value for the smaller $Γ_r$. By making use of a generalized Friedrichs inequality, we show that the elliptical instability and viscous damping determine the $Γ_r$-window for the realizable turbulent states. The theoretical results are in excellent agreement with our numerical finding $2/3 \le Γ_r \le 4/3$, where the lower threshold is approached for the larger $Ra$. Finally, we show that the theoretical approach to frame $Γ_r$ also works for free-slip boundary conditions.

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arXiv2020

Periodically modulated thermal convection

Many natural and industrial turbulent flows are subjected to time-dependent boundary conditions. Despite being ubiquitous, the influence of temporal modulations (with frequency $f$) on global transport properties has hardly been studied. Here, we perform numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection with time periodic modulation in the temperature boundary condition and report how this modulation can lead to a significant heat flux (Nusselt number $\rm{Nu}$) enhancement. Using the concept of Stokes thermal boundary layer, we can explain the onset frequency of the Nu enhancement and the optimal frequency at which Nu is maximal, and how they depend on the Rayleigh number Ra and Prandtl number $\rm{Pr}$. From this, we construct a phase diagram in the 3D parameter space ($f$, $\rm{Ra}$, $\rm{Pr}$) and identify: (i) a regime where the modulation is too fast to affect $\rm{Nu}$; (ii) a moderate modulation regime, where $\rm{Nu}$ increases with decreasing $f$ and (iii) slow modulation regime, where $\rm{Nu}$ decreases with further decreasing $f$. Our findings provide a framework to study other types of turbulent flows with time-dependent forcing.

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arXiv2020

Elliptical Instability and Multi-Roll Flow Modes of the Large-scale Circulation in Confined Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in slender cylindrical cells exhibits rich dynamics of the large-scale circulation (LSC), with several rolls stacked on top of each other. We propose that the elliptical instability is the mechanism which causes the twisting and breaking of the LSC into multiple rolls and that the volume-averaged heat and momentum transport, represented by the Nusselt number and Reynolds number, is generally weaker for larger number $n$ of the LSC rolls. This is supported by direct numerical simulations for $Ra=5\times10^5$, $Pr=0.1$, $H=5D$ and $1\leq~n\leq4$.

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arXiv2019

Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh--Bénard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like $Ra^{1/4}Ek^{2/3}$ where the Ekman number $Ek$ decreases with increasing rotation rate.

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arXiv2019

Inclined turbulent thermal convection in liquid sodium

Inclined turbulent thermal convection by large Rayleigh numbers in extremely small-Prandtl-number fluids is studied based on results of both, measurements and high-resolution numerical simulations. The Prandtl number $Pr\approx0.0093$ considered in the experiments and the Large-Eddy Simulations (LES) and $Pr=0.0094$ considered in the Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) correspond to liquid sodium, which is used in the experiments. Also similar are the studied Rayleigh numbers, which are, respectively, $Ra=1.67\times10^7$ in the DNS, $Ra=1.5\times10^7$ in the LES and $Ra=1.42\times10^7$ in the measurements. The working convection cell is a cylinder with equal height and diameter, where one circular surface is heated and another one is cooled. The cylinder axis is inclined with respect to the vertical and the inclination angle varies from $β=0^\circ$, which corresponds to a Rayleigh-Bénard configuration (RBC), to $β=90^\circ$, as in a vertical convection (VC) setup. The turbulent heat and momentum transport as well as time-averaged and instantaneous flow structures and their evolution in time are studied in detail, for different inclination angles, and are illustrated also by supplementary videos, obtained from the DNS and experimental data. To investigate the scaling relations of the mean heat and momentum transport in the limiting cases of RBC and VC configurations, additional measurements are conducted for about one decade of the Rayleigh numbers around $Ra=10^7$ and $Pr\approx0.009$. With respect to the turbulent heat transport in inclined thermal convection by low $Pr$, a similarity of the global flow characteristics for the same value of $RaPr$ is proposed and analysed, based on the above simulations and measurements and on complementary DNS for $Ra=1.67\times10^6$, $Pr=0.094$ and $Ra=10^9$, $Pr=1$.

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arXiv2018

Comparison of computational codes for direct numerical simulations of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Computational codes for direct numerical simulations of Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection are compared in terms of computational cost and quality of the solution. As a benchmark case, RB convection at $Ra=10^8$ and $Pr=1$ in a periodic domain, in cubic and cylindrical containers is considered. A dedicated second-order finite-difference code (AFID/RBflow) and a specialized fourth-order finite-volume code (Goldfish) are compared with a general purpose finite-volume approach (OpenFOAM) and a general purpose spectral-element code (Nek5000). Reassuringly, all codes provide predictions of the average heat transfer that converge to the same values. The computational costs, however, are found to differ considerably. The specialized codes AFID/RBflow and Goldfish are found to excel in efficiency, outperforming the general purpose flow solvers Nek5000 and OpenFOAM by an order of magnitude with an error on the Nusselt number $Nu$ below $5\%$. However, we find that $Nu$ alone is not sufficient to assess the quality of the numerical results: in fact, instantaneous snapshots of the temperature field from a near wall region obtained for deliberately under-resolved simulations using Nek5000 clearly indicate inadequate flow resolution even when $Nu$ is converged. Overall, dedicated special purpose codes for RB convection are found to be more efficient than general purpose codes.

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arXiv2017

Mean Temperature Profiles in Turbulent Thermal Convection

To predict the mean temperature profiles in turbulent thermal convection, the thermal boundary layer (BL) equation including the effects of fluctuations has to be solved. In Shishkina et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 114 (2015), the thermal BL equation with the fluctuations taken into account as an eddy thermal diffusivity has been solved for large Prandtl-number fluids for which the eddy thermal diffusivity and the velocity field can be approximated respectively as a cubic and a linear function of the distance from the plate. In the present work we make use of the idea of Prandtl's mixing length model and relate the eddy thermal diffusivity to the stream function. With this proposed relation, we can solve the thermal BL equation and obtain a closed-form expression for the dimensionless mean temperature profile in terms of two independent parameters for fluids with a general Prandtl number. With a proper choice of the parameters, our predictions of the temperature profiles are in excellent agreement with the results of our direct numerical simulations for a wide range of Prandtl numbers from 0.01 to 2547.9 and Rayleigh numbers from 10^7 to 10^9.

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arXiv2017

Scaling relations in large-Prandtl-number natural thermal convection

In this study we follow Grossmann and Lohse, Phys. Rev. Lett. 86 (2001), who derived various scalings regimes for the dependence of the Nusselt number $Nu$ and the Reynolds number $Re$ on the Rayleigh number $Ra$ and the Prandtl number $Pr$. We focus on theoretical arguments as well as on numerical simulations for the case of large-$Pr$ natural thermal convection. Based on an analysis of self-similarity of the boundary layer equations, we derive that in this case the limiting large-$Pr$ boundary-layer dominated regime is I$_\infty^<$, introduced and defined in [1], with the scaling relations $Nu\sim Pr^0\,Ra^{1/3}$ and $Re\sim Pr^{-1}\,Ra^{2/3}$. Our direct numerical simulations for $Ra$ from $10^4$ to $10^9$ and $Pr$ from 0.1 to 200 show that the regime I$_\infty^<$ is almost indistinguishable from the regime III$_\infty$, where the kinetic dissipation is bulk-dominated. With increasing $Ra$, the scaling relations undergo a transition to those in IV$_u$ of reference [1], where the thermal dissipation is determined by its bulk contribution.

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arXiv2017

Effect of Prandtl number on heat transport enhancement in Rayleigh-Bénard convection under geometrical confinement

We study, using direct numerical simulations, the effect of geometrical confinement on heat transport and flow structure in Rayleigh-Bénard convection in fluids with different Prandtl numbers. Our simulations span over two decades of Prandtl number $Pr$, $0.1 \leq Pr \leq 40$, with the Rayleigh number $Ra$ fixed at $10^8$. The width-to-height aspect ratio $Γ$ spans between $0.025$ and $0.25$ while the length-to-height aspect ratio is fixed at one. We first find that for $Pr \geq 0.5$, geometrical confinement can lead to a significant enhancement in heat transport as characterized by the Nusselt number $Nu$. For those cases, $Nu$ is maximal at a certain $Γ= Γ_{opt}$. It is found that $Γ_{opt}$ exhibits a power-law relation with $Pr$ as $Γ_{opt}=0.11Pr^{-0.06}$, and the maximal relative enhancement generally increases with $Pr$ over the explored parameter range. As opposed to the situation of $Pr \geq 0.5$, confinement-induced enhancement in $Nu$ is not realized for smaller values of $Pr$, such as $0.1$ and $0.2$. The $Pr$ dependence of the heat transport enhancement can be understood in its relation to the coverage area of the thermal plumes over the thermal boundary layer (BL) where larger coverage is observed for larger $Pr$ due to a smaller thermal diffusivity. We further show that $Γ_{opt}$ is closely related to the crossing of thermal and momentum BLs, and find that $Nu$ declines sharply when the thickness ratio of the thermal and momentum BLs exceeds a certain value of about one. In addition, through examining the temporally averaged flow fields and 2D mode decomposition, it is found that for smaller $Pr$ the large-scale circulation is robust against the geometrical confinement of the convection cell.

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arXiv2015

Thermal Boundary Layer Equation for Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection

We report a new thermal boundary layer equation for turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection for Prandtl number Pr>1 that takes into account the effect of turbulent fluctuations. These fluctuations are neglected in existing equations, which are based on steady-state and laminar assumptions. Using this new equation, we derive analytically the mean temperature profiles in two limits: (a) Pr>1, Pr~1 and (b) Pr>>1. These two theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with the results of our direct numerical simulations for Pr=4.38 (water) and Pr=2547.9 (glycerol) respectively.

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arXiv2014

Toroidal and poloidal energy in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

We consider rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection of a fluid with a Prandtl number of $Pr = 0.8$ in a cylindrical cell with an aspect ratio $Γ= 1/2$. Direct numerical simulations were performed for the Rayleigh number range $10^5 \leq Ra \leq 10^9$ and the inverse Rossby number range $0 \leq 1/Ro \leq 20$. We propose a method to capture regime transitions based on the decomposition of the velocity field into toroidal and poloidal parts. We identify four different regimes. First, a buoyancy dominated regime occurring as long as the toroidal energy $e_{tor}$ is not affected by rotation and remains equal to that in the non-rotating case, $e^0_{tor}$. Second, a rotation influenced regime, starting at rotation rates where $e_{tor} > e^0_{tor}$ and ending at a critical inverse Rossby number $1/Ro_{cr}$ that is determined by the balance of the toroidal and poloidal energy, $e_{tor} = e_{pol}$. Third, a rotation dominated regime, where the toroidal energy $e_{tor}$ is larger than both, $e_{pol}$ and $e^0_{tor}$. Fourth, a geostrophic turbulence regime for high rotation rates where the toroidal energy drops below the value of non-rotating convection.

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arXiv2011

Boundary layer structure in turbulent thermal convection and its consequences for the required numerical resolution

Results on the Prandtl-Blasius type kinetic and thermal boundary layer thicknesses in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a broad range of Prandtl numbers are presented. By solving the laminar Prandtl-Blasius boundary layer equations, we calculate the ratio of the thermal and kinetic boundary layer thicknesses, which depends on the Prandtl number Pr only. It is approximated as $0.588Pr^{-1/2}$ for $Pr\ll Pr^*$ and as $0.982 Pr^{-1/3}$ for $Pr^*\ll\Pr$, with $Pr^*= 0.046$. Comparison of the Prandtl--Blasius velocity boundary layer thickness with that evaluated in the direct numerical simulations by Stevens, Verzicco, and Lohse (J. Fluid Mech. 643, 495 (2010)) gives very good agreement. Based on the Prandtl--Blasius type considerations, we derive a lower-bound estimate for the minimum number of the computational mesh nodes, required to conduct accurate numerical simulations of moderately high (boundary layer dominated) turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection, in the thermal and kinetic boundary layers close to bottom and top plates. It is shown that the number of required nodes within each boundary layer depends on Nu and Pr and grows with the Rayleigh number Ra not slower than $\sim\Ra^{0.15}$. This estimate agrees excellently with empirical results, which were based on the convergence of the Nusselt number in numerical simulations.

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