Numerical study of convection of a liquid heated from below

The equilibrium of a liquid heated from below is stable only for small values of the vertical temperature gradient. With increase of the temperature gradient a critical equilibrium situation occurs, as a result of which convection develops. If the liquid fills a closed cavity, then there is a discrete sequence of critical temperature gradients (Rayleigh numbers) for which the equilibrium loses stability with respect to small characteristic disturbances. This sequence of critical gradients and motions may be found from the solution of the linear problem of equilibrium stability relative to small disturbances. If the temperature gradient exceeds the lower critical value, then (for steady-state heating conditions) there is established in the liquid a steady convective motion of a definite amplitude which depends on the magnitude of the temperature gradient. Naturally, the amplitude of the steady convective motion cannot be determined from linear stability theory; to find this amplitude we must solve the problem of convection with heating from below in the nonlinear formulation. A nonlinear study of the steady motion of a liquid in a closed cavity with heating from below was made in [1]. In that study it was shown that for Rayleigh numbers R which are less than the lower critical value R_c steady-state motions of the liquid are not possible. With R>R_c a steady convection arises, whose amplitude near the threshold is small and proportional to (R–R_c)^1/2 (the so-called soft instability)-this is in complete agreement with the results of the phenom-enological theory of Landau [2, 3].Primarily, various versions of the method of expansion in powers of the amplitude [4–8] have been used, and, consequently, the results obtained in those studies are valid only for values of R which are close to R_c, i. e., near the convection threshold.It is apparent that the study of developed convective motion far from the threshold can be carried out only numerically, with the use of digital computers. In [9, 10] the numerical methods have been successfully used for the study of developed convection in an infinite plane horizontal liquid layer.The present paper undertakes the numerical study of plane convective motions of a liquid in a closed cavity of square section. The complete nonlinear system of convection equations is solved by the method of finite differences on a digital computer for various values of the Rayleigh number, the maximal value exceeding by a factor of 40 the minimal critical value R_c. The numerical solution permits following the development of the steady motion which arises with R>R_c in the course of increase of the Rayleigh number and permits study of the oscillatory motions which occur at some value of the parameter R. The heat transfer through the cavity is studied. The corresponding linear problem on equilibrium stability is solved approximately by the Galerkin method.     

Convection development in a liquid layer with a free boundary

In certain calculations of the critical Rayleigh number for a liquid layer with free boundary which is heated from below, the linearization method has been used and it has been assumed that the temperature perturbations disappear at the undisturbed free boundary.Proper linearization shows that the temperature perturbation is proportional to the free surface perturbation, and the latter is proportional to the normal stress perturbation with the proportionality factor F=²/gh³ (g is the free-fall acceleration, is the kinematic viscosity, h is the liquid layer thickness). In §1 we present a formulation of the problem with account for the parameter F; in §2 we consider the linearized equations and the existence of a stability threshold is proved-a positive eigenvalue-and it is established that with an increase in the parameter F/P (P is the Prandtl number) the value of the critical Rayleigh number Ra_* decreases; §3 presents the results of a numerical calculation of Ra as a function of the parameter F/P.Convection development in a liquid layer with a free surface on which a given temperature is maintained was studied in [1, 2]. The value R_*=1100 found for the critical Rayleigh number agrees well with the experimental value. In the calculations made in [1, 2] the linearization method is used, and it is assumed that the temperature perturbations disappear at the undisturbed free boundary. Strictly speaking, this assumption is not correct.Correct linearization shows that the temperature perturbation is proportional to the perturbation of the free boundary, and the latter is proportional to the normal stress perturbation (see below (2.3)).The problem formulation is presented in §1; §2 deals with the linearized equations and the existence (Theorem 2.1) is demonstrated of a stability threshold—which is a simple positive eigenvalue; §3 presents the results of a numerical calculation of R_* as a function of the parameter =F/P.     

Effect of thermal radiation exchange between boundaries on convection in a gas heated from below

Natural convection problems offer many examples of branching of the solutions [1]. Usually, such branching (from the standpoint of catastrophe theory) can be described by a Whitney fold or cusp. A characteristic feature of nontrivial branching is the presence of some small but finite disturbance of the convective equilibrium conditions. In this study the perturbation disturbing the convective equilibrium of a fluid heated from below is Stefan-law thermal radiation exchange between the boundaries of the enclosure. Natural convection with lateral heating and allowance for radiative heat transfer was previously investigated in [2].Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No.5, pp. 47–51, September–October, 1992.     

Effect of a permeable partition on convective instability in a rectangular cavity

The equilibrium stability of a fluid, heated from below, in a rectangular cavity with a vertical permeable partition is investigated. The small perturbation problem is solved by the Galerkin-Kantorovich method. The relations obtained for the dependence of the critical Rayleigh numbers on the partition parameters and the cavity dimensions make it possible to identify regions in which either even or odd perturbations, sensitive to only the normal or only the tangential resistance of the partition, respectively, are responsible for equilibrium crisis. The effect of a permeable partition on the convective instability of a horizontal layer of fluid under various heating conditions was considered in [1–3], where a significant dependence of the critical Rayleigh numbers on the properties of the partition was established.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 6–10, May–June, 1989.     

Intrapore convection when the average temperature gradient is vertical

The heat conduction of a porous medium saturated with a fluid is usually regarded as being purely molecular [1]. The assumption here is that in the case of heating from below the local temperature gradient within each of the pores, like the averaged gradient in the complete layer, is strictly vertical, and, since the pores are as a rule small, this local gradient is less than the critical. It is therefore assumed that in the absence of large-scale convection the fluid in the pores is in equilibrium. However, for different thermal conductivities of the fluid and the porous skeleton surrounding it a vertical temperature gradient in the fluid and, accordingly, equilibrium of the fluid are possible only if a cavity is a sphere or an ellipsoid with a definite orientation [1]. Since the pores do not have such shapes, the convective motion that arises in each of the pores or in several communicating pores can lead to an increase in the effective thermal conductivity of the fluid and, accordingly, the effective thermal conductivity of the complete medium. The present paper is devoted to study of this effect.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 93–98, January–February, 1984.     

Stability of convective motion in a vertical layer in the presence of longitudinal vibrations

The influence of vibrations of a cavity containing a fluid on the convective stability of the equilibrium has been investigated on a number of occasions [1]. The stability of convective flows in a modulated gravity field has not hitherto been studied systematically. There is only the paper of Baxi, Arpaci, and Vest [2], which contains fragmentary data corresponding to various values of the determining parameters of the problem. The present paper investigates the linear stability of convective flow in a vertical plane layer with walls at different temperatures in the presence of longitudinal harmonic vibrations of the cavity containing the fluid. It is assumed that the frequency of the vibrations is fairly high; the motion is described by the equations of the averaged convective motion. The stability boundaries of the flow with respect to monotonic perturbations in the region of Prandtl numbers 0 ? P ? 10 are determined. It is found that high-frequency vibrations have a destabilizing influence on the convective motion. At sufficiently large values of the vibration parameter, the flow becomes unstable at arbitrarily small values of the Grashof number, this being due to the mechanism of vibrational convection, which leads to instability even under conditions of weightlessness, when the main flow is absent [3, 4].     

Vortex perturbations of the nonstationary motion of a liquid with a free boundary

The first studies on the stability of nonstationary motions of a liquid with a free boundary were published relatively recently [1–4]. Investigations were conducted concerning the stability of flow in a spherical cavity [1, 2], a spherical shell [3], a strip, and an annulus of an ideal liquid. In these studies both the fundamental motion and the perturbed motion were assumed to be potential flow. Changing to Lagrangian coordinates considerably simplified the solution of the problem. Ovsyannikov [5], using Lagrangian coordinates, obtained equations for small potential perturbations of an arbitrary potential flow. The resulting equations were used for solving typical examples which showed the degree of difficulty involved in the investigation of the stability of nonstationary motions [5–8]. In all of these studies the stability was characterized by the deviation of the free boundary from its unperturbed state, i.e., by the normal component of the perturbation vector. In the present study we obtain general equations for small perturbations of the nonstationary flow of a liquid with a free boundary in Lagrangian coordinates. We find a simple expression for the normal component of the perturbation vector. In the case of potential mass forces the resulting system reduces to a single equation for some scalar function with an evolutionary condition on the free boundary. We prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for the solution, and, in particular, we answer the question of whether the linear problem concerning small potential perturbations which was formulated in [5] is correct. We investigate two examples for stability: a) the stretching of a strip and b) the compression of a circular cylinder with the condition that the initial perturbation is not of potential type.     

Influence of boundary conditions on the convective stability of a rotating horizontal layer of liquid

A theoretical study is made of the critical curves for the onset of convection in a plane horizontal layer of liquid rotating with constant angular velocity for different conditions on the boundary of the layer. It is shown that, in contrast to Chandresekhar's curves [1] obtained under the condition of constancy of the temperature on the boundaries, the curves for a constant heat flux lie significantly lower, so that convection occurs earlier for all Taylor numbers. At large Taylor numbers all the stability curves, as in [1], tend to the asymptotes R_C Ta^2/3, where Ta is the Taylor number and R_C is the critical Rayleigh number. A similar investigation for a nonrotating liquid was made in [2].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 124–129, May–June, 1988.We thank G. S. Golitsyn for the proposed subject and constant interest in the work.     

Experimental determination of the boundaries of the region of existence of anomalous convection flow in an tilted cube

This paper presents an experimentally study of the bifurcation of steady-state air convection in a cubic cavity heated from below under controlled deviations from equilibrium heating conditions due to a slow quasisteady-state tilt of the cavity at a predetermined angle α. It is found that in the supercritical range of Rayleigh numbers Ra at a tilt of the cavity not exceeding 7°, the existence of two stable steady-state convection regimes (normal and anomalous) with circulation in opposite directions is possible. A study is made of the transformations of the temperature distribution in the middle (with respect to the planes in which heat exchangers are located) plane during transition from the anomalous flow regime to the normal regime by instantaneous rotation of the entire mass of air in the cavity around the vertical axis by an angle of 90 to 135°. It is shown that this rotation occurs when the tilt of the cavity exceeds a critical value α _cr(Ra), which was determined experimentally for Rayleigh numbers 0 < Ra < 25Racr, where Racr is the critical Rayleigh number for stability of mechanical equilibrium for heating from below.     

The Onset of Double-Diffusive Convection in a Superposed Fluid and Porous Layer Under High-Frequency and Small-Amplitude Vibrations

We numerically simulate the initiation of an average convective flow in a system composed of a horizontal binary fluid layer overlying a homogeneous porous layer saturated with the same fluid under gravitational field and vibration. In the layers, fixed equilibrium temperature and concentration gradients are set. The layers execute high-frequency oscillations in the vertical direction. The vibration period is small compared with characteristic timescales of the problem. The averaging method is applied to obtain vibrational convection equations. Using for computation the shooting method, a numerical investigation is carried out for an aqueous ammonium chloride solution and packed glass spheres saturated with the solution. The instability threshold is determined under two heating conditions—on heating from below and from above. When the solution is heated from below, the instability character changes abruptly with increasing solutal Rayleigh number, i.e., there is a jump-wise transition from the most dangerous shortwave perturbations localized in the fluid layer to the long-wave perturbations covering both layers. The perturbation wavelength increases by almost 10 times. Vibrations significantly stabilize the fluid equilibrium state and lead to an increase in the wavelength of its perturbations. When the fluid with the stabilizing concentration gradient is heated from below, convection can occur not only in a monotonous manner but also in an oscillatory manner. The frequency of critical oscillatory perturbations decreases by 10 times, when the long-wave instability replaces the shortwave instability. When the fluid is heated from above, only stationary convection is excited over the entire range of the examined parameters. A lower monotonic instability level is associated with the development of perturbations with longer wavelength even at a relatively large fluid layer thickness. Vibrations speed up the stationary convection onset and lead to a decrease in the wavelength of most dangerous perturbations of the motionless equilibrium state. In this case, high enough amplitudes of vibration are needed for a remarkable change in the stability threshold. The results of numerical simulation show good agreement with the data of earlier works in the limiting case of zero fluid layer thickness.     

Influence of spatial modulation of the temperature field on the stability of two-dimensional steady flow in a horizontal layer of fluid

A study is made of the stability of the steady periodic regime that arises in a horizontal layer of fluid in the presence of spatial modulation of of the temperature on the solid bottom boundary. The upper free boundary of the layer is in contact with the atmosphere. The fundamental resonance values of the wave number of the modulation are found; there are five of them. If the temperature of the lower boundary of the layer is constant, and the temperature gradient is not too large, the fluid is in equilibrium. When the temperature gradient passes through the critical value, the equilibrium ceases to be stable, and steady convection develops in the fluid [1]. In the presence of spatial modulation of the temperature on the lower boundary of the layer the fluid cannot be in equilibrium, and a spatially periodic steady regime is established in it. The aim of the present paper is to find the critical values of the temperature gradient at which this fundamental steady regime becomes unstable and a secondary steady regime develops in the fluid. An analogous problem for the case when both boundaries of the layer are free surfaces and without allowance for the influence of the atmosphere has been solved by Vozovoi and Nepomnyashchii [2].     

Threshold excitation of photoabsorption convection

The article considers questions of the stability of the equilibrium states of a liquid which absorbs light. Threshold values are found for the intensity of the light in the problem of the stability of the equilibrium of a liquid in a square cavity with three thermally insulated walls. A steady-state integro-interpolation scheme is presented for the numerical calculation of problems of photoabsorption convection. The propagation of light waves in absorbing media is accompanied by the dissipation of radiant energy. In heavy liquids, absorption heating of a substance in the field of a wave may be the reason for the appearance of convection [1–3]. It is important to study the conditions for the appearance and the special characteristics of this type of convection, and its inverse effect on the structure of the light field. The first problem is important when the light beams are regarded only as a source of convection [4], and the second in questions of the directed propagation of light [5] and of self-focusing phenomena [2, 3, 6–10]. For high-energy heat fluxes and a liquid with a strong temperature dependence of its dielectric permeability, the convective self-stress will be very considerable; in this case, both problems are mutually interconnected. The excitation of convection by the absorption of light, without taking account of the inverse effect on the structure of the light beam, was studied numerically in [1, 4]. Equations for photoabsorption convection, taking account of convective self-stress in the Boussinesq approximation and of the geometry of the optics, were formulated in [11]. Several economical finite-difference schemes for solving problems of photoabsorption convection problems in rectangular cavities are discussed in [12]. The present article is devoted to an investigation of the threshold intensities of light for the excitation of photoabsorption convection. The existence of critical intensities of light, above which the mechanically equilibrium states of the liquids absorbing the light become unstable, was demonstrated in [1, 4].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 128–135, September–October, 1971.The authors thank A. V. Lykov for his continuing interest and aid, and G. I. Petrov and V. I. Polezhaev for their useful evaluation of the work.     

Bifurcation regimes of free convection in the presence of thermal radiation and cavity inclination

The bifurcation regimes of free convection in closed cavities with heating from below have been investigated numerically by many authors [1]. In the situations considered the equilibrium solution conditions were disturbed by only one factor, e.g. the inclination of the cavity to the vertical, the motion of one of the boundaries, a change in the equilibrium temperature distribution, etc. In this paper, the simultaneous influence of two factors that disturb the fluid equilibrium conditions, namely thermal radiation and a slight inclination of the cavity relative to the vertical, are investigated. It is shown that, for the simultaneous action of two destabilizing factors, a near-equilibrium solution is possible. Perm’. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 42–47, January–February, 2000. The work received financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project No. 96-01-01737).     

Effect of a rotating magnetic field on convection in a horizontal fluid layer

The stability of mechanical equilibrium of a horizontal layer of conducting fluid in the presence of a magnetic field rotating in a horizontal plane is considered. Both finite field rotation frequencies and the limiting case of high frequencies are investigated. It is shown that the magnetic field stabilizes the equilibrium. The dependence of the critical perturbation wavelength on the field strength is non-monotonic, and with increase in the magnetic field strength the mode of most dangerous perturbations changes from long-to short-wave type. Nonlinear three-dimensional convection regimes are calculated numerically. It is found that at finite supercriticalities and a sufficiently strong magnetic field the rolls and the hexagonal cells may be stable simultaneously.     

Finite-amplitude self-oscillations in a rotating Hagen-poiseuille flow

The nonlinear stability of a viscous incompressible flow in a circular pipe rotating about its own axis is investigated. A solution of the initial—boundary value problem for the unsteady three-dimensional Navier—Stokes equations is found by means of the Bubnov—Galerkin method [1–5]. A series of methodological investigations were made. The nonlinear evolution of the periodic self-oscillating regimes is studied, and their characteristic stabilization times, amplitudes, and other integral and fluctuational characteristics are found. The secondary instability of these finite-amplitude wave motions is examined. It is established that the secondary instability is initially weak and linear in character; the corresponding growth times are approximately an order greater than for the primary perturbations. There is the possibility of a sharp, explosive restructuring of the motion when the secondary perturbations reach a certain critical amplitude. A survival curve [5] is constructed, which makes it possible to determine the preferred perturbation, distinguishable from the rest if the initial perturbation amplitudes are equal, and the critical amplitude values starting from which the other perturbations may prevail even over the preferred one. The range of these surviving perturbations is obtained. It is shown that as a result of the non-linear interaction of several perturbations at low levels of supercritlcality periodic motion in the form of a single traveling wave is generated.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 22–28, July–August, 1985.     

Small perturbations spectrum in boundary-layer flow on a flat plate

The small perturbation spectrum of a number of flows has recently been analyzed carefully [1–3]. At the same time, investigations for the boundary layer have been limited within the framework of linear perturbation theory to the neighborhood of the neutral curve although a spectrum analysis is of indubitable interest not only to find the stability criterion of a laminar stream, but also to solve a problem with initial data about the time development of an arbitrary small perturbation. In particular, the possibility of representing an arbitrary perturbation in terms of a system of basis functions is related to the question of the completeness of the system. The finiteness was proved [4] and an estimate was obtained of the domain of eigenvalue existence in an investigation of the boundary-layer stability and a deduction has been made about the finiteness of the small perturbations spectrum for boundary-layer flow on this basis. A sufficiently complete survey of the investigation of the neutral stability of a laminar boundary layer can be found in the monograph [5]. The small perturbations spectrum in a boundary layer flow is obtained in this paper by methods of the linear theory of hydrodynamic stability by using the complete boundary conditions on the outer boundary. It is shown that the small perturbations spectrum is finite for each fixed value of the wave number . Singularities in the spectrum behavior are investigated for sufficiently small .Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Mekhaniki i Tekhnicheskoi Fiziki, No. 4, pp. 112–115, July–August, 1975.The author is grateful to M. A. Gol'dshtik and V. N. Shtern for useful discussions of the results of the research.     

On the change in the region of localization of perturbations in nonlinear transport processes

The quasilinear parabolic equation $$\frac{{\partial u}}{{\partial t}} = \frac{\partial }{{\partial x}}\left( {\left| {\frac{{\partial u^k }}{{\partial x}}} \right|^{n - 1} \frac{{\partial u^k }}{{\partial x}}} \right) - \gamma u^m , k,\gamma > 0, m \geqslant 0, kn > 1$$ can be regarded as the generalized form of many well-known transport equations with transport coefficients that depend on the transported quantity. For example, the case n = 1 corresponds to heat transport in a medium with thermal conductivity and sinks which depend on the temperature in accordance with a power law [1, 2]; the case k = m = 1 describes the flow of a conducting non-Newtonian fluid in a transverse magnetic field [3]; the case k = 2, m = 0 corresponds to the magnetohydrodynamic flow of the same fluid in a transverse magnetic field in a laminar boundary layer [4]. In the general case, Eq. (0.1) describes turbulent flow in a porous medium with nonlinear sinks [5]. A characteristic feature of the processes described by Eq. (0.1) is the possibility of existence of a front x = x_f(t) which strictly separates regions with u(x, t) = 0 from regions with u(x, t) > 0 in which the perturbations of the transported quantity are localized [6]. In the present paper, the change in the region of localization of the perturbations of the transported quantity is investigated in the Cauchy problems for Eq. (0.1).     

Thermocapillary convection in two-layer systems in the presence of a surface active agent at the interface

Convective instability in a layered system due to the thermocapillary effect was investigated in [1–5]. In these studies it was shown that the perturbations responsible for equilibrium crisis may build up either monotonically or in an oscillatory fashion. In [6] the stabilizing effect of a surface active agent (SAA) on thermocapillary instability was established for a layer with a free surface. For layers of infinite thickness the effect of SAA on thermocapillary convection was studied in [7–9]. The present investigation is concerned with thermocapillary convection in a system of two layers of finite thickness in the presence of an SAA. Convection due to the lift force is not considered. It is established that the principal result of the action of the SAA is not the stabilizing effect on the monotonic mode but the appearance of a new type of oscillatory instability.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2 pp. 3–8, March–April, 1986.In conclusion the authors wish to thank E. M. Zhukhovitskii for discussind the results.     

Instability of small-amplitude convective flows in a rotating layer with free boundaries

The stability of steady convective flows in a horizontal layer with free boundaries, heated from below and rotating about a vertical axis, is studied in the Boussinesq approximation (Rayleigh-Bénard convection). The flows considered are convective rolls or square cells that are sums of two perpendicular rolls with equal wave numbers k. It is assumed that the Rayleigh number is almost critical in order for convective flows with a wave number k: R = R _c (k) + ε² to arise, the amplitude of the supercritical states being of the order of ε. It is shown that the flows are always unstable relative to perturbations that are the sum of one long-and two short-wave modes corresponding to linear rolls turned through small angles in opposite directions.