# Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how rotation influences Rayleigh--Taylor turbulence, revealing that increasing rotational effects suppress turbulence intensity, reduce heat transfer efficiency, and induce cyclone-anticyclone asymmetry, based on direct numerical simulations.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the impact of rotation on Rayleigh--Taylor turbulence, highlighting the decreasing Rossby number and its effects on turbulence dynamics.

## Key findings

- Rotation reduces turbulent velocity fluctuations.
- Heat transfer efficiency decreases with rotation.
- Cyclone-anticyclone asymmetry develops during evolution.

## Abstract

The turbulent Rayleigh--Taylor system in a rotating reference frame is investigated by direct numerical simulations within the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation. On the basis of theoretical arguments, supported by our simulations, we show that the Rossby number decreases in time, and therefore the Coriolis force becomes more important as the system evolves and produces many effects on Rayleigh--Taylor turbulence. We find that rotation reduces the intensity of turbulent velocity fluctuations and therefore the growth rate of the temperature mixing layer. Moreover, in presence of rotation the conversion of potential energy into turbulent kinetic energy is found to be less effective and the efficiency of the heat transfer is reduced. Finally, during the evolution of the mixing layer we observe the development of a cyclone-anticyclone asymmetry.