Thermal flux in unsteady Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard magnetoconvection

TL;DR

This study numerically investigates thermal flux behavior in unsteady Rayleigh-Bénard magnetoconvection under a vertical magnetic field, revealing how magnetic strength influences heat transfer and flux fluctuations across various fluid properties.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how magnetic fields affect thermal flux and its statistical properties in Rayleigh-Bénard convection for different fluids and parameters.

Findings

Nusselt number power spectral density scales as f^{-2}.

Average Nusselt number decreases logarithmically with magnetic field strength.

Local thermal flux distribution is asymmetric and non-Gaussian.

Abstract

We present results of numerical investigation on thermal flux in Rayleigh-B\'{e}nard magnetoconvection in the presence of a uniform vertical magnetic field. We have studied thermal flux in different viscous fluids with a range of Prandtl number ($0.1 \le \mathrm{Pr} < 6.5$) and a range of Chandrasekhar number ($50 \le \mathrm{Q} \le 2.5 \times 10^4$). The power spectral density of the Nusselt number varies with frequency $f$ approximately as $f^{-2}$. The probability distribution function of the fluctuating part of the Nusselt number is nearly normal distribution with slight asymmetric tails. For a fixed value the Rayleigh number $\mathrm{Ra}$, the time averaged Nusselt number $\langle \mathrm{Nu} (\mathrm{Q})\rangle$ decreases logarithmically with Chandrasekhar number for $\mathrm{Q} > \mathrm{Q}_c$, which depends on $\mathrm{Ra}$ and $\mathrm{Pr}$. The reduced Nusselt number $\mathrm{Nu_r}$ $=$ $\langle \mathrm{Nu}(\mathrm{Q})\rangle/{\langle \mathrm{Nu}(0)\rangle}$ rises sharply, reaches a maximum slightly above unity and then start decreasing very slowly to unity as the value of a dimensionless parameter $\sqrt{\mathrm{Ra/(Q~Pr)}}$ is raised. The probability distribution function of the local thermal flux in the vertical direction is found to be asymmetric and non-Gaussian with a cusp at its maximum.