2022/05/11 by K. Lüdemann, Lüdemann, K., A. Tilgner +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.05431
openalex publication_date 2022/05/11 · openalex created_date 2022/10/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate by direct numerical simulation Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a rotating rectangular cell with rotation vector and gravity perpendicular to each other. The flow is two dimensional near the onset of convection with convection rolls aligned parallel to the rotation axis of the boundaries. At a sufficiently large Rayleigh number, the flow becomes unstable to three dimensional disturbances which changes the scaling of heat transport and kinetic energy with Rayleigh number. The mechanism leading to the instability is identified as an elliptical instability. At the transition, the Reynolds and Rossby numbers Re and Ro based on the kinetic energy of the flow are related by Re ∝ Ro-2 at small Ro with a geometry dependent prefactor.