Heat-flux scaling in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection with an imposed longitudinal wind.
We present a numerical study of Rayleigh-Bénard convection disturbed by a longitudinal wind. Our results show that under the action of the wind, the vertical heat flux through the cell initially decreases, due to the mechanism of plume sweeping, and then increases again when turbulent forced convection dominates over the buoyancy. As a result, the Nusselt number is a nonmonotonic function of the shear Reynolds number. We provide simple models that capture with good accuracy all the dynamical regimes observed. We expect that our findings can lead the way to a more fundamental understanding of the complex interplay between mean wind and plume ejection in the Rayleigh-Bénard phenomenology.
School of Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland and Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands and Department of Physics and INFN, Univ. of Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy.
Andrea
A
Scagliarini
School of Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University, Menntavegur 1, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland.
Ármann
Á
Gylfason
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands and Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands and CNR-IAC, Via dei Taurini 19, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Federico
F
Toschi