Titre/Title :
Table-Top Geophysical Turbulence
Contact :
Jan-bert Flor
Résumé/Abstract : In this talk I will start with a brief overview of the experimental and numerical studies on (transport in) geophysical turbulence which have been and are currently being carried out in the Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at TU/e. The main topics include rotating turbulence, (rotating) thermal convection and dispersion of inertial particles in stratified turbulence. The second part of my talk will address several issues related with (rotating) thermal convection.
Rayleigh-Bénard convection is a classical problem in which a fluid layer enclosed between two parallel horizontal walls is heated from below and cooled at the top. In a rotating frame of reference the dynamics can change considerably through the fundamental involvement of a combination of buoyancy and Coriolis forces. The rotating Rayleigh-Bénard (RRB) setting is important for many applications, e.g., in engineering and climate modelling. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is used to calculate the heat transfer, flow structuring and small-scale turbulent properties at systematically varied rotation rates. The DNS code solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in a cylinder in a rotating frame of reference, coupled to the heat equation within the Boussinesq approximation. The results from the DNS will be compared to data from SPIV measurements in a water-filled cylindrical convection cell. In particular, the fate of the LSC and enhanced heat transfer under influence of increasing rotation rate will be discussed in this talk.