arXiv subjects

Yi-Chao Xie

Publications and source records attributed to Yi-Chao Xie.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Scale-dependent force balance governs transition to the geostrophic regime in liquid metal rotating convection

Rotating convection in low-Prandtl-number liquid metal drives dynamo action in the Earth's outer core and is central to planetary interior dynamics. It has been proposed that flow regime transitions in rotating convection are controlled by competition between the thermal and Ekman boundary layers. However, through laboratory experiments and direct numerical simulations of rotating liquid-metal convection, we find that this mechanism breaks down in the low-Prandtl-number regime. Here we show that increasing rotation reorganises the bulk flow: the large-scale circulation is suppressed and replaced by smaller-scale structures, producing a characteristic horizontal length scale $\ell$. Transitions to the geostrophic regime are then governed by a buoyancy--Coriolis balance defined on $\ell$ rather than by the boundary-layer crossing. This scale-dependent mechanism also yields heat-transport scalings that depart from boundary-layer-based predictions in the geostrophic regime. Our results reveal a distinct route to the geostrophic regime in low-Prandtl-number rotating convection with implications for rotating liquid metal flows in planetary interiors.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Flow states and heat transport in liquid metal convection

We present an experimental study of Rayleigh-Bénard convection using liquid metal alloy gallium-indium-tin as the working fluid with a Prandtl number of $Pr=0.029$. The flow state and the heat transport were measured in a Rayleigh number range of $1.2\times10^{4} \le Ra \le 1.3\times10^{7}$. The temperature fluctuation at the cell centre is used as a proxy for the flow state. It is found that, as $Ra$ increases from the lower end of the parameter range, the flow evolves from a convection state to an oscillation state, a chaotic state, and finally a turbulent state for $Ra>10^5$. The study suggests that the large-scale circulation in the turbulent state is a residual of the cell structures near the onset of convection, which is in contrast with the case of $Pr\sim1$, where the cell structure is replaced by high-order flow modes transiently before the emergence of the large-scale circulation in the turbulent state. The evolution of the flow state is also reflected by the heat transport characterised by the Nusselt number $Nu$ and the probability density function (PDF) of the temperature fluctuation at the cell centre. It is found that the effective local heat transport scaling exponent $γ$, i.e., $Nu\sim Ra^γ$, changes continuously from $γ=0.49$ at $Ra\sim 10^4$ to $γ=0.25$ for $Ra>10^6$. Meanwhile, the PDF at the cell centre gradually evolves from a Gaussian-like shape before the transition to turbulence to an exponential-like shape in the turbulent state. For $Ra>10^6$, the flow shows self-similar behaviour, which is revealed by the universal shape of the PDF of the temperature fluctuation at the cell centre and a $Nu=0.19Ra^{0.25}$ scaling for the heat transport.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Universal fluctuations in the bulk of Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence

We present an investigation of the root-mean-square (rms) temperature $σ_T$ and the rms velocity $σ_w$ in the bulk of Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence, using new experimental data from the current study and experimental and numerical data from previous studies. We find that, once scaled by the convective temperature $θ_*$, the value of $σ_T$ at the cell centre is a constant, i.e. $σ_{T,c}/θ_* \approx 0.85$, over a wide range of the Rayleigh number ($10^{8}\leq Ra\leq 10^{15}$) and the Prandtl number ($0.7\leq Pr \leq 23.34$), and is independent of the surface topographies of the top and bottom plates of the convection cell. A constant close to unity suggests that $θ_*$ is a proper measure of the temperature fluctuation in the core region. On the other hand, $σ_{w,c}/w_*$, the vertical rms velocity at the cell centre scaled by the convective velocity $w_*$, shows a weak $Ra$-dependence ($\sim Ra^{0.07\pm0.02}$) over $10^8\leq Ra\leq 10^{10}$ at $Pr\sim4.3$ and is independent of plate topography. Similar to a previous finding by He \& Xia ({\it Phys. Rev. Lett.,} vol. 122, 2019, 014503), we find that the rms temperature profile $σ_T(z)/θ_*$ in the region of the mixing zone with a mean horizontal shear exhibits a power-law dependence on the distance $z$ from the plate, but now the universal profile applies to both smooth and rough surface topographies and over a wider range of $Ra$. The vertical rms velocity profile $σ_w(z)/w_*$ obey a logarithmic dependence on $z$. The study thus demonstrates that the typical scales for the temperature and the velocity are the convective temperature $θ_*$ and the the convective velocity $w_*$, respectively. Finally, we note that $θ_*$ may be utilised to study the flow regime transitions in the ultra-high-$Ra$-number turbulent convection.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Turbulent thermal convection over rough plates with varying roughness geometries

We present a systematic investigation of the effects of roughness geometry on turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) over rough plates with pyramid-shaped and periodically distributed roughness elements. Using a parameter $λ$ defined as the height of a roughness element over its base width, the heat transport, the flow dynamics and local temperatures are measured for the Rayleigh number range $7.50\times 10^{7} \leq Ra\leq 1.31\times 10^{11}$, and the Prandtl number $Pr$ from 3.57 to 23.34 at four values of $λ$. It is found that the heat transport scaling, i.e. $Nu\sim Ra^α$ where $Nu$ is the Nusselt number, may be classified into three regimes. In Regime I, the system is in a dynamically smooth state. The heat transport scaling is the same as that in a smooth cell. In Regimes II and III, the heat transport enhances. When $λ$ is increased from 0.5 to 4.0, $α$ increases from 0.36 to 0.59 in Regime II, and it increases from 0.30 to 0.50 in Regime III. The experiment demonstrates the heat transport scaling in turbulent RBC can be manipulated using $λ$. Previous studies suggest that the transition from Regime I to Regime II, occurs when the thermal boundary layer (BL) thickness becomes smaller than the roughness height $h$. Direct measurements of the viscous BL in the present study suggest that the transition from Regime II to Regime III is likely a result of the viscous BL thickness becoming smaller $h$. The scaling exponent of the Reynolds number $Re$ vs. $Ra$ changes from 0.471 to 0.551 when $λ$ is increased from 0.5 to 4.0. It is also found that increasing $λ$ increases the clustering of thermal plumes which effectively increases the plumes lifetime that are ultimately responsible for the enhanced heat transport.

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arXiv2015

Dynamics and flow-coupling in two-layer turbulent thermal convection

We present an experimental investigation of the dynamics and flow-coupling of convective turbulent flows in a cylindrical Rayleigh-Benard convection cell with two immiscible fluids, water and fluorinert FC-77 electronic liquid (FC77). It is found that one large-scale circulation (LSC) roll exists in each of the fluid layers, and that their circulation planes have two preferred azimuthal orientations separated by $\simπ$. A surprising finding of the study is that cessations/reversals of the LSC in FC77 of the two-layer system occur much more frequently than they do in single-layer turbulent RBC, and that a cessation is most likely to result in a flow reversal of the LSC, which is in sharp contrast with the uniform distribution of the orientational angular change of the LSC before and after cessations in single-layer turbulent RBC. This implies that the dynamics governing cessations and reversals in the two systems are very different. Two coupling modes, thermal coupling (flow directions of the two LSCs are opposite to each other at the fluid-fluid interface) and viscous coupling (flow directions of the two LSCs are the same at the fluid-fluid interface), are identified with the former one as the predominant mode. That most cessations (in the FC77 layer) end up as reversals can be understood as a symmetry breaking imposed by the orientation of the LSC in the water layer, which remained unchanged most of the time. Furthermore, the frequently occurring cessations and reversals are caused by the system switching between its two metastable states, i.e. thermal and viscous coupling modes. It is also observed that the strength of the LSC in water becomes weaker when the LSC in FC77 rotates faster azimuthally and that the flow strength in FC77 becomes stronger when the LSC in water rotates faster azimuthally, i.e. the influence of the LSC in one fluid layer on the other is not symmetric.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2015

Effects of polymer additives in the bulk of turbulent thermal convection

We present experimental evidence that a minute amount of polymer additives can significantly enhance heat transport in the bulk region of turbulent thermal convection. The effects of polymer additives are found to be the \textit{suppression} of turbulent background fluctuations that give rise to incoherent heat fluxes that make no net contribution to heat transport, and at the same time to \textit{increase} the coherency of temperature and velocity fields. The suppression of small-scale turbulent fluctuations leads to more coherent thermal plumes that result in the heat transport enhancement. The fact that polymer additives can increase the coherency of thermal plumes is supported by the measurements of a number of local quantities, such as the extracted plume amplitude and width, the velocity autocorrelation functions and the velocity-temperature cross-correlation coefficient. The results from local measurements also suggest the existence of a threshold value for the polymer concentration, only above which can significant modification of the plume coherent properties and enhancement of the local heat flux be observed. Estimation of the plume emission rate suggests that the second effect of polymer additives is to stabilize the thermal boundary layers.

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