Curvature-based energy spectra revealing flow regime changes in Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mommert, Michael, Bahavar, Philipp, Barta, Robin, Bauer, Christian, Volk, Marie-Christine, Wagner, Claus
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Mommert, Michael
Bahavar, Philipp
Barta, Robin
Bauer, Christian
Volk, Marie-Christine
Wagner, Claus
author_facet Mommert, Michael
Bahavar, Philipp
Barta, Robin
Bauer, Christian
Volk, Marie-Christine
Wagner, Claus
contents We use the local curvature derived from velocity vector fields or particle tracks as a surrogate for structure size to compute curvature-based energy spectra. An application to homogeneous isotropic turbulence shows that these spectra replicate certain features of classical energy spectra such as the slope of the inertial range extending towards the equivalent curvature of the Taylor microscale. As this curvature-based analysis framework is sampling based, it also allows further statistical analyses of the time evolution of the kinetic energies and curvatures considered. The main findings of these analyses are that the slope for the inertial range also appears as a salient point in the probability density distribution of the angle of the vector comprising the two time evolution components. This density distribution further exhibits changing features of its shape depending on the Rayleigh number. This Rayleigh number evolution allows to observe a change in the flow regime between the Rayleigh numbers $10^6$ and $10^7$. Insight into this regime change is gathered by conditionally sampling the salient time evolution behaviours and projecting them back into physical space. Concretely, the regime change is manifested by a change in the spatial distribution for the different time evolution behaviours. Finally, we show that this analysis can be applied to measured Lagrangian particle tracks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_22545
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Curvature-based energy spectra revealing flow regime changes in Rayleigh-Bénard convection
Mommert, Michael
Bahavar, Philipp
Barta, Robin
Bauer, Christian
Volk, Marie-Christine
Wagner, Claus
Fluid Dynamics
We use the local curvature derived from velocity vector fields or particle tracks as a surrogate for structure size to compute curvature-based energy spectra. An application to homogeneous isotropic turbulence shows that these spectra replicate certain features of classical energy spectra such as the slope of the inertial range extending towards the equivalent curvature of the Taylor microscale. As this curvature-based analysis framework is sampling based, it also allows further statistical analyses of the time evolution of the kinetic energies and curvatures considered. The main findings of these analyses are that the slope for the inertial range also appears as a salient point in the probability density distribution of the angle of the vector comprising the two time evolution components. This density distribution further exhibits changing features of its shape depending on the Rayleigh number. This Rayleigh number evolution allows to observe a change in the flow regime between the Rayleigh numbers $10^6$ and $10^7$. Insight into this regime change is gathered by conditionally sampling the salient time evolution behaviours and projecting them back into physical space. Concretely, the regime change is manifested by a change in the spatial distribution for the different time evolution behaviours. Finally, we show that this analysis can be applied to measured Lagrangian particle tracks.
title Curvature-based energy spectra revealing flow regime changes in Rayleigh-Bénard convection
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.22545