Vortex statistics in turbulent rotating convection

Kunnen, R.P.J. and Clercx, H.J.H. and Geurts, B.J. (2010) Vortex statistics in turbulent rotating convection. Physical Review E: Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics, 82 (3). 036306. ISSN 1539-3755

PDF
Restricted to UT campus only: Request a copy
883Kb

Abstract:	The vortices emerging in rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in water at Rayleigh number Ra=6.0×108 are investigated using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and by direct numerical simulation. The so-called Q criterion is used to detect the vortices from velocity fields. This criterion allows distinguishing vorticity- and strain-dominated regions in the flow by decomposing the velocity gradient tensor into symmetric and antisymmetric parts. Vortex densities, mean vortex radii and mean vortex circulations are calculated at two horizontal cross-sections of the cylindrical flow domain and at several rotation rates, described by the Taylor number which takes values between 3.0×108 and 7.7×1010. Separate statistics are calculated for cyclonic and anticyclonic vortices. Vortex densities and mean vortex radii are mostly independent of the Taylor number except very close to the bottom and top plates where more vortices are detected when the Taylor number is raised (rotation increases). The vortex population close to the plate consists mostly of cyclones while further into the bulk of the domain a similar amount of cyclones and anticyclones is found. The cyclonic vortices contain more circulation than the anticyclones. The same vortex analysis of the simulation results at additional vertical positions revealed that the vortices are formed in a boundary layer on the plate with a thickness of approximately two Ekman lengths.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2010 The American Physical Society
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS)
Research Group:	Mathematics of Computational Science (MaCS)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/73193
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.82.036306
Export this item as:	BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager

Show download statistics for this publication

Repository Staff Only: item control page