What rotation rate maximizes heat transport in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection with Prandtl number larger than one?
Yantao Yang, Roberto Verzicco, Detlef Lohse, Richard J. A. M. Stevens
Abstract
Rayleigh-B\'enard convection is the canonical system to study heat transfer in turbulent thermal convection. Rotation can enhance heat transport compared to the nonrotating regime by Ekman pumping; that is, due to the rotation, rising or falling plumes of hot or cold fluid are stretched into vertically aligned vortices that suck fluid out of the thermal boundary layers adjacent to the bottom and top plates. Here we show that the physical mechanism and flow structure at the rotation rate with highest heat transfer is different in the low (left image) and high (right image) Rayleigh number regime.
Topics & Concepts
Prandtl numberMechanicsRotation (mathematics)Heat transferConvectionRayleigh numberVortexConvective heat transferTurbulencePhysicsNatural convectionTurbulent Prandtl numberThermalThermodynamicsBoundary layerHeat transfer coefficientFlow (mathematics)Combined forced and natural convectionThermal conductionConvection cellClassical mechanicsEkman numberFluid dynamicsRayleigh–Bénard convectionMaterials scienceRayleigh scatteringEkman layerMixing (physics)Film temperatureBoundary value problemForced convectionBoundary (topology)Heat transfer enhancementFluid Dynamics and Turbulent FlowsNonlinear Dynamics and Pattern FormationNanofluid Flow and Heat Transfer