Confinement suppresses the effect of rotation on convection

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Main Authors: Tripathi, V. K., Joshi, P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Tripathi, V. K.
Joshi, P.
author_facet Tripathi, V. K.
Joshi, P.
contents We perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) to study the effect of bi-lateral confinement, i.e., the effect of aspect ratio, on the Rayleigh number (Ra) for the onset of wall-mode convection ($Ra_{wm}$) in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) for various Ekman number E ($10^{-2}{\le}E{\le}10^{-5}$) and aspect ratio $Γ$ ($0.08{\le}Γ{\le}5$). For a given E, as the aspect ratio is lowered from a large value, $Ra_{wm}$ initially decreases slowly, reaching a minimum at $Γ=Γ_{min}$ ($Γ_{min}{\sim}E^{0.09}$). As $Γ$ is decreased further below $Γ_{min}$, $Ra_{wm}$ increases rapidly and for sufficiently strong confinement, i.e., $Γ<Γ_{\ast}$ ($Γ_{\ast}{\sim}E^{\frac{1}{3}}$), becomes indistinguishable from $Ra_{c}$, the critical Rayleigh number for non-rotating RBC, at the same $Γ$. We designate the ranges $Γ_{min}<Γ<5$ as the 'confinement-affected' regime and $Γ<Γ_{\ast}$ as the 'spatially constrained' regime. For a given rotation rate, the spatially constrained regime extends to higher Ra as the aspect ratio is decreased. We propose that in this regime, strong lateral confinement suppresses the horizontal velocity, and hence the Coriolis force, rendering rotation ineffective over most of the domain.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_09174
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Confinement suppresses the effect of rotation on convection
Tripathi, V. K.
Joshi, P.
Fluid Dynamics
We perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) to study the effect of bi-lateral confinement, i.e., the effect of aspect ratio, on the Rayleigh number (Ra) for the onset of wall-mode convection ($Ra_{wm}$) in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) for various Ekman number E ($10^{-2}{\le}E{\le}10^{-5}$) and aspect ratio $Γ$ ($0.08{\le}Γ{\le}5$). For a given E, as the aspect ratio is lowered from a large value, $Ra_{wm}$ initially decreases slowly, reaching a minimum at $Γ=Γ_{min}$ ($Γ_{min}{\sim}E^{0.09}$). As $Γ$ is decreased further below $Γ_{min}$, $Ra_{wm}$ increases rapidly and for sufficiently strong confinement, i.e., $Γ<Γ_{\ast}$ ($Γ_{\ast}{\sim}E^{\frac{1}{3}}$), becomes indistinguishable from $Ra_{c}$, the critical Rayleigh number for non-rotating RBC, at the same $Γ$. We designate the ranges $Γ_{min}<Γ<5$ as the 'confinement-affected' regime and $Γ<Γ_{\ast}$ as the 'spatially constrained' regime. For a given rotation rate, the spatially constrained regime extends to higher Ra as the aspect ratio is decreased. We propose that in this regime, strong lateral confinement suppresses the horizontal velocity, and hence the Coriolis force, rendering rotation ineffective over most of the domain.
title Confinement suppresses the effect of rotation on convection
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.09174