Approaching the Asymptotic Regime of Rapidly Rotating Convection: Boundary Layers vs Interior Dynamics
arXiv:1409.7432 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.254501
Abstract
Rapidly rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection is studied by combining results from direct numerical simulations (DNS), laboratory experiments and asymptotic modeling. The asymptotic theory is shown to provide a good description of the bulk dynamics at low, but finite Rossby number. However, large deviations from the asymptotically predicted heat transfer scaling are found, with laboratory experiments and DNS consistently yielding much larger Nusselt numbers than expected. These deviations are traced down to dynamically active Ekman boundary layers, which are shown to play an integral part in controlling heat transfer even for Ekman numbers as small as . By adding an analytical parameterization of the Ekman transport to simulations using stress-free boundary conditions, we demonstrate that the heat transfer jumps from values broadly compatible with the asymptotic theory to states of strongly increased heat transfer, in good quantitative agreement with no-slip DNS and compatible with the experimental data. Finally, similarly to non-rotating convection, we find no single scaling behavior, but instead that multiple well-defined dynamical regimes exist in rapidly-rotating convection systems.
Submitted to Physical Review Letters on 17 July 2014
References in corpus (4)
Cited by in corpus (47)
- Scaling regimes in spherical shell rotating convection
- Approaching a realistic force balance in geodynamo simulations
- The effects of Ekman pumping on quasi-geostrophic Rayleigh-Benard convection
- Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
- Intertial wave turbulence driven by elliptical instability
- Turbulent rotating convection confined in a slender cylinder: the sidewall circulation
- Convection-driven kinematic dynamos at low Rossby and magnetic Prandtl numbers
- Latitudinal regionalization of rotating spherical shell convection
- Convection with Misaligned Gravity and Rotation: Simulations and Rotating Mixing Length Theory
- Anelastic Versus Fully Compressible Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
- Heat Flow and Boundary Heterogeneity in Rotating Convection
- Experimental observation of the geostrophic turbulence regime of rapidly rotating convection
- Jets and large-scale vortices in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection
- Free-fall velocities and heat transport enhancement in liquid metal magneto-convection
- What rotation rate maximizes heat transport in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection with Prandtl number larger than one?
- Velocimetry in rapidly rotating convection: spatial correlations, flow structures and length scales
- Inverse cascades of kinetic energy and thermal variance in three-dimensional horizontally extended turbulent convection
- Diffusion-free scaling in rotating spherical Rayleigh-Bénard convection
- Tornado-Like Vortices in the Quasi-Cyclostrophic Regime of Coriolis-Centrifugal Convection
- Large-scale-vortex dynamos in planar rotating convection
- Reynolds number scaling and energy spectra in geostrophic convection
- Predicting the Rossby number in convective experiments
- Asymptotic Behavior of Heat Transport for a Class of Exact Solutions in Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
- Robust wall modes and their interplay with bulk turbulence in confined rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection
- Bridging the Rossby number gap in rapidly rotating thermal convection
- Sharp transitions in rotating turbulent convection: Lagrangian acceleration statistics reveal a second critical Rossby number
- Asymptotic behaviour of rotating convection-driven dynamos in the plane layer geometry
- Direct numerical simulations of optimal thermal convection in rotating plane layer dynamos
- How do tidal waves interact with convective vortices in rapidly-rotating planets and stars?
- pizza: An open-source pseudo-spectral code for spherical quasi-geostrophic convection
- Convectively driven decadal zonal accelerations in Earth's fluid core
- Lorentz force mediation of turbulent dynamo transitions
- Optimal heat transport in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection at large Rayleigh numbers
- Effects of kinematic and magnetic boundary conditions on the dynamics of convection-driven plane layer dynamos
- Critical Prandtl number for Heat Transfer Enhancement in Rotating Convection
- Turbulent mesoscale convection in the Boussinesq limit and beyond
- Comparison of Quasi-Geostrophic, Hybrid and 3D models of planetary core convection
- Rigorous bounds on the heat transport of rotating convection with Ekman pumping
- Seven decades of exploring planetary interiors with rotating convection experiments
- Global Turbulent Solar Convection: a Numerical Path Investigating Key Force Balances in the context of the Convective Conundrum
- Turbulent convection in rotating slender cells
- Internally heated convection with rotation: bounds on heat transport
- Asymptotic approximations for convection onset with Ekman pumping at low wavenumbers
- The rotational influence on solar convection
- Rapidly Rotating Wall-Mode Convection
- On the inverse cascade and flow speed scaling behavior in rapidly rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection
- Transition to inverse cascade in turbulent rotating convection in absence of the large-scale vortex