Experimental laminar Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cubical cavity at moderate Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers

Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cubical cavity with adiabatic or conductive sidewalls is experimentally analyzed at moderate Rayleigh numbers (Ra ≤ 8 × 10⁴) using silicone oil (Pr=130) as the convecting fluid. Under these conditions the flow is steady and laminar. Three single-roll-type structures and an unstable toroidal roll have been observed inside the cavity with nearly adiabatic sidewalls. The sequence from the conductive state consists of a toroidal roll that evolves to a diagonally oriented single roll with increasing Rayleigh number. This diagonal roll, which is stabilized by the effect of the small but finite conductivity of the walls, shifts its axis of rotation towards to two opposite walls, and back to the diagonal orientation to allow for the increase in circulation that occurs as the Rayleigh number is further increased. Conduction at the sidewalls modifies this sequence in the sense that the two initial single rolls finally evolve into a four-roll structure. Once formed, this four-roll structure remains stable when decreasing the Rayleigh number until the initial single diagonally oriented roll is again recovered. The topology and the velocity fields of all structures, characterized with visualization and particle image velocimetry, respectively, are in good agreement with numerical results reported previously for the cavity with adiabatic walls, as well as with the numerical predictions obtained in the present study for perfectly conducting lateral walls. Received: 10 August 1998/Accepted: 1 August 2000     

Unsteady and chaotic characteristics of natural convection field in vertical slots at large Prandtl number

In this study we examined the unsteady and chaotic characteristics of the natural convection field in vertical slots at large Prandtl number. In the computation, temperature dependence of viscosity was partially taken into consideration. As a result we discovered that the spatial region where a significant temperature fluctuation is detected corresponds to the spatial region where the secondary cells exist. The largest Lyapunov exponents calculated from the temperature on the center line have a local maximum at the lower region of the enclosure when the viscosity change was considered. These characteristics agree well with the experimental ones that have been observed by authors (Ishida, Kure and Kimoto 2001).     

Diffuse approximation method for solving natural convection in porous media

The diffuse approximation is presented and applied to natural convection problems in porous media. A comparison with the control volume-based finite-element method shows that, overall, the diffuse approximation appears to be fairly attractive.Nomenclature H height of the cavities - I functional - K permeability - p(M _i ,M) line vector of monomials - p ^T p-transpose - M current point - Nu Nusselt number - Ri inner radius - Ro outer radius - Ra Rayleigh number - x, y cartesian coordinates - u, v velocity components - T temperature - M vector of estimated derivatives - _t thermal diffusivity - coefficient of thermal expansion - practical aperture of the weighting function - scalar field - (M, M _i ) weighting function - streamfunction - kinematic viscosity     

Instabilities of thermal gravitational convection and heat transfer in the Czochralski model at different Prandtl numbers

The results of the calculations of critical Grash of numbers, at which flowfield and temperature fluctuations originate in the axisymmetric and three-dimensional models of crystal growth by pulling from a melt, are presented. The salient features of the convection and heat transfer structure in the zones of stabilization and changeover of dangerous modes are studied over a wide Prandtl number range under different boundary conditions on the melt surface and compared with the experimental data.     

Analysis of mixed convection in the Czochralski model in a wide range of Prandtl numbers

The results of the calculations and analysis of the effect of separate and joint rotation of the crystal and the crucible on the flow stability are presented for a wide range of Prandtl numbers (from 0.01 to 10). The regimes with a high stability threshold are determined for different combinations of the rotation velocities. It is shown that for high Prandtl numbers, simultaneous rotation of the crystal and the crucible makes it possible to increase the critical Grashof number in 9–12 times. A resultant diagram (map) of the limiting regimes of natural and mixed convection is constructed. Themethodology of control and analysis of 2D and 3D instability modes is discussed.     

A mixed-timescale SGS model for thermal field at various Prandtl numbers

A new subgrid-scale (SGS) model for the thermal field is proposed. The model is an extended version of the mixed-timescale (MTS) SGS model for velocity field by Inagaki et al. (2005), which has been confirmed to be a refined SGS model for velocity field suited to engineering-relevant practical large eddy simulation (LES). In the proposed model for the thermal field, a hybrid timescale between the timescales of the velocity and thermal fields is introduced in a manner similar to velocity-field modeling. Thus, the present model dispenses with an ambiguous SGS turbulent Prandtl number, like the dynamic SGS model. In addition, the wall-limiting behavior of turbulence is satisfied, which is not in the original MTS model, by incorporating the wall-damping function for LES based on the Kolmogorov velocity scale proposed by Inagaki et al. (2010). The model performance is tested in plane channel flows at various Prandtl numbers, and the results show that this model gives the ratio of the timescales between the velocity and thermal fields similar to that obtained using the dynamic Smagorinsky model with locally calculated model parameters. It is also shown that the proposed model predicts better mean and fluctuating temperature profiles in cooperation with the revised MTS model for the velocity field, than the Smagorinsky model and the dynamic Smagorinsky model. The present model is constructed with fixed model parameters, so that it does not suffer from computational instability with the dynamic model. Thus, it is expected to be a refined and versatile SGS model suited for practical LES of the thermal field.     

An interferometric investigation of the effect of separation distance and temperature imbalance on natural convection for two horizontal cylinders at moderate Rayleigh numbers

An experimental investigation has been carried out to study the natural convection interaction between a pair of horizontal cylinders located directly one above the other. It is found that the presence of the upper cylinder has negligible effect on the heat transfer rate from the lower cylinder, thus attention has been given on the heat transfer characteristics from the upper cylinder The ratio S/D of the center-to-center separation distance was varied from three to six by a step of one. The temperature imbalance ΔT₁/ΔT₂ was also varied independently. The experiments were conducted with Rayleigh numbers varying from 6300 to 13000. It was found that maximum enhancement of the heat transfer from the upper cylinder for a given ratio S/D depends primarily from the temperature imbalance ΔT₁/ΔT₂ and weakly from the Rayleigh number. The experimental results for the maximum enhancement, can be presented fairly well by the empirical formula (ΔT₁/ΔT₂)_op=0.136(S/D)^0.75 for 2≦S/D≦6, 1000≦Ra≦200000. The findings of this investigation agree closely with those previously reported in the literature.     

Prandtl number effects on natural convection heat transfer in concentric and eccentric horizontal cylindrical annuli

The influence of various Prandtl numbers on the laminar convection flow between concentric and vertically eccentric cylinders is studied numerically. To overcome the difficulties associated with the complex physical domains a numerical transformation method is used to map this region on a rectangle. Although two independent computer programs which are based on different formulations of the governing equations were used, nearly identical results were obtained. Local heat transfer results are presented for a wide range of Rayleigh numbers for the first time. Local heat transfer rates are found to depend on the Prandtl number in addition to the Rayleigh number dependence.     

A study of upstream-weighted high-order differencing for approximation to flow convection

This paper is concerned with a number of upstream-weighted second- and third-order difference schemes. Also considered are the conventional upwind and central difference schemes for comparison. It commences with a general difference equation which unifies all the given first-, second- and third-order schemes. The various schemes are evaluated through the use of the general equation. The unboundedness and accuracy of the solutions by the difference schemes are assessed via various analyses: examination of the coefficients of the difference equation, Taylor series truncation error analysis, study of the upstream connection to numerical diffusion, single-cell analysis. Finally, the difference schemes are tested on one- and two-dimensional model problems. It is shown that the high-order schemes suffer less from the problem of numerical diffusion than the first-order upwind difference scheme. However, unboundedness cannot be avoided in the solutions by these schemes. Among them the linear upwind difference scheme presents the best compromise between numerical diffusion and solution unboundedness.     

Diffusion to a particle at large péclet numbers and small Reynolds and Hartmann numbers

A study is made of the influence of a homogeneous magnetic field on the mass transfer for a spherical solid particle and a liquid drop in a flow of a viscous electrically conducting fluid. The previously obtained [1] velocity field of the fluid is used to calculate the concentration distribution in the diffusion boundary layer, the density of the diffusion flux, and the Nusselt number, which characterizes the mass transfer between the particle and the surrounding medium.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 189–192, January–February, 1980.     

Transient natural convection cooling of a high Prandtl number fluid in a cubical cavity

This work presents a numerical analysis of the effects of thermal boundary conditions, fluid variable viscosity and wall conduction on transient laminar natural convection of a high Prandtl number (Pr=4×10⁴) fluid (Golden Syrup) in a cubical cavity. The simulations consider physical situations realizable at laboratory scale using a cavity with Plexiglas walls of 1 cm of thickness, and inside dimension of L=20 cm. The initial Rayleigh (Ra) number is 10⁶. The cavity is initially full of fluid at rest and at constant temperature (T _i =45°C) higher than the temperature of the walls (T _w =25°C). The time evolution of the flow patterns, the temperature contours, the mean temperature of the fluid and the Nusselt number (Nu) of eight different cases of cooling are presented and analyzed.     

Bénard–Marangoni convection in a small circular container: influence of the Biot and Prandtl numbers on pattern dynamics and free surface deformation

We studied, experimentally, the pattern dynamics and free surface deformation in Bénard–Marangoni convection, in a circular container (aspect ratio = 6). The free surface deformation fields were visualized by interferometry and temperature fields by infrared thermography. We considered the influence of the Marangoni (up to 2,623), Biot and Prandtl numbers. More dynamics are induced by increasing the Biot number and transition to a time-dependent flow has been observed. Conversely, increasing the Prandtl number reduces the dynamics. The deformation increases as a function of the Marangoni number until it reaches asymptotic values, which are functions of the Biot and Prandtl numbers.     

Coriolis effect on convection for a low Prandtl number fluid

The problem of finite-amplitude thermal convection in a horizontal layer of a low Prandtl number heated from below and rotating about a vertical axis is studied. Linear stability and weak non-linear theories are used to investigate analytically the Coriolis effect on gravity-driven convection. The non-linear steady problem is solved by perturbation techniques, and the preferred mode of convection is determined by a stability analysis. Finite-amplitude results, obtained by using a weak amplitude, correspond to both stationary and oscillatory convections. These amplitude equations permit to identify from the post-transient conditions that the fluid is subject to Pitchfork bifurcation in the stationary convection and Hopf bifurcation in the oscillatory convection. Thereafter, in the small perturbations hypothesis, an amplitude solution is evaluated and drawn in time and space scales.     

Parameter-free numerical method for modeling thermal convection in square cavities in a wide range of Rayleigh numbers

Some numerical results for the two- and three-dimensional de Vahl Davis benchmark are presented. This benchmark describes thermal convection in a square (cubic) cavity with vertical heated walls in a wide range of Rayleigh numbers (10⁴ to 10¹⁴), which covers both laminar and highly turbulent f lows. Turbulent f lows are usually described using a turbulence model with parameters that depend on the Rayleigh number and require adjustment. An alternative is Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) methods, but they demand extremely large computational grids. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in DNS methods with an incomplete resolution, which, in some cases, are able to provide acceptable results without resolving Kolmogorov scales. On the basis of this approach, the so-called parameter-free computational techniques have been developed. These methods cover a wide range of Rayleigh numbers and allow computing various integral properties of heat transport on relatively coarse computational grids. In this paper, a new numerical method based on the CABARET scheme is proposed for solving the Navier–Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation. This technique does not involve a turbulence model or any tuning parameters and has a second-order approximation scheme in time and space on uniform and nonuniform grids with a minimal computational stencil. Testing the technique on the de Vahl Davis benchmark and a sequence of refined grids shows that the method yields integral heat f luxes with a high degree of accuracy for both laminar and highly turbulent f lows. For Rayleigh numbers up to 10¹⁴, a several percent accuracy is achieved on an extremely coarse grid consisting of 20 × 20 cells refined toward the boundary. No definite or comprehensive explanation of this computational phenomenon has been given. Cautious optimism is expressed regarding the perspectives of using the new method for thermal convection computations at low Prandtl numbers typical of liquid metals.     

Exact solution of the problem of convective heat exchange for a circular cylinder at small Prandtl numbers

The problem of the heat exchange of a circular cylinder in an incompressible flow at small Prandtl numbers Pr ≪ 1 is solved. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 43–48, January–February, 1994.     

A relaxation approximation for time-dependent second-order effects in shear turbulence

The Crow constraint on time-dependent turbulence models is generalized to effects of second order in the strain rate. For simple shear flow, this generalization requires agreement of the time-dependent normal stress deviators with the short-time rapid distortion limit and with long-time equilibrium data. A model consistent with these requirements is proposed based on a perturbative solution of the equations of the direct interaction approximation for shear flow. It requires a decomposition of the Reynolds stress into tensor components which satisfy coupled linear relaxation equations. This approach to time-dependent turbulence modeling based on analytical theories offers an alternative to the standard ones, in which various hypotheses are introduced to close correlations in the exact transport equation for second-order single-point moments.Partial financial support provided by ONR Contract N00014-94-1-0124 is gratefully acknowledged.