Turbulent mesoscale convection in the Boussinesq limit and beyond

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Main Authors: Alam, Shadab, Krasnov, Dmitry, Pandey, Ambrish, John, John Panickacheril, Samuel, Roshan J., Vieweg, Philipp P., Schumacher, Jörg
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Alam, Shadab
Krasnov, Dmitry
Pandey, Ambrish
John, John Panickacheril
Samuel, Roshan J.
Vieweg, Philipp P.
Schumacher, Jörg
author_facet Alam, Shadab
Krasnov, Dmitry
Pandey, Ambrish
John, John Panickacheril
Samuel, Roshan J.
Vieweg, Philipp P.
Schumacher, Jörg
contents Mesoscale convection covers an intermediate scale range between small-scale turbulence and the global organization of the convection flow. It is often characterized by an order of the convection patterns despite very high Rayleigh numbers and strong turbulent fluctuations. In this review, we discuss several aspects of mesoscale convection, which have been investigated by three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The numerical studies are performed in a characteristic configuration of a plane layer that is heated from below and cooled from above or subject to constant heat flux at the top and bottom boundaries. We discuss the role of the thermal and mechanical boundary conditions for structure formation and study the impact of the domain shape as well as the Prandtl number. With respect to the latter, we focus on low values that arise in astrophysical convection and are partly not anymore accessible in laboratory experiments with liquid metals. Beside these experiments in the Boussinesq approximation, we report studies of non-Boussinesq mesoscale convection. This is done by investigating effects of compressibility and temperature dependence of material properties. The kinetic energy dissipation rate turns out to remain a central quantity for the turbulent mixing in compressible convection. Their different components, statistics, relation to the turbulent viscosity, and the multifractal properties are discussed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_04809
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Turbulent mesoscale convection in the Boussinesq limit and beyond
Alam, Shadab
Krasnov, Dmitry
Pandey, Ambrish
John, John Panickacheril
Samuel, Roshan J.
Vieweg, Philipp P.
Schumacher, Jörg
Fluid Dynamics
Mesoscale convection covers an intermediate scale range between small-scale turbulence and the global organization of the convection flow. It is often characterized by an order of the convection patterns despite very high Rayleigh numbers and strong turbulent fluctuations. In this review, we discuss several aspects of mesoscale convection, which have been investigated by three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The numerical studies are performed in a characteristic configuration of a plane layer that is heated from below and cooled from above or subject to constant heat flux at the top and bottom boundaries. We discuss the role of the thermal and mechanical boundary conditions for structure formation and study the impact of the domain shape as well as the Prandtl number. With respect to the latter, we focus on low values that arise in astrophysical convection and are partly not anymore accessible in laboratory experiments with liquid metals. Beside these experiments in the Boussinesq approximation, we report studies of non-Boussinesq mesoscale convection. This is done by investigating effects of compressibility and temperature dependence of material properties. The kinetic energy dissipation rate turns out to remain a central quantity for the turbulent mixing in compressible convection. Their different components, statistics, relation to the turbulent viscosity, and the multifractal properties are discussed.
title Turbulent mesoscale convection in the Boussinesq limit and beyond
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04809