Effects of rotation on the bulk turbulent convection

TL;DR

This study uses direct numerical simulations to explore how rotation influences turbulent convection, revealing that rotation can enhance heat transfer and flow strength through the formation of columnar structures.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the effects of rotation on turbulent convection, especially the enhancement of heat transfer and flow dynamics at intermediate Rossby numbers.

Findings

Rotation increases Nusselt and Reynolds numbers at fixed Rayleigh number.

Maximum enhancement occurs at intermediate Rossby numbers.

Flow becomes quasi-bidimensional with columnar structures.

Abstract

We study rotating homogeneous turbulent convection forced by a mean vertical temperature gradient by means of direct numerical simulations (DNS) in the Boussinesq approximation in a rotating frame. In the absence of rotationour results are in agreement with the "ultimate regime of thermal convection" for the scaling of the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers vs Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers. Rotation is found to increase both $Nu$ and $Re$ at fixed $Ra$ with a maximum enhancement for intermediate values of the Rossby numbers, qualitatively similar, but with stronger intensity, to what observed in Rayleigh-B\'enard rotating convection. Our results are interpreted in terms of a quasi-bidimensionalization of the flow with the formation of columnar structures displaying strong correlation between the temperature and the vertical velocity fields.