Multi-scale steady solution for Rayleigh-B\'enard convection

TL;DR

This paper discovers a multi-scale steady solution for Rayleigh-Bénard convection that exhibits turbulence-like features, including scaling laws and energy spectra, up to high Rayleigh numbers, bridging laminar and turbulent convection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-scale steady solution of the Boussinesq equations that captures turbulent characteristics in Rayleigh-Bénard convection at high Rayleigh numbers.

Findings

Nu scales as Ra^{0.31}

Energy spectrum follows Kolmogorov -5/3 law

Temperature and velocity fluctuations match turbulent states

Abstract

We have found a multi-scale steady solution of the Boussinesq equations for Rayleigh-B\'enard convection in a three-dimensional periodic domain between horizontal plates with a constant temperature difference by using a homotopy from the wall-to-wall optimal transport solution given by Motoki et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 851, 2018, R4). The connected steady solution, which turns out to be a consequence of bifurcation from a thermal conduction state at the Rayleigh number $Ra\sim10^{3}$, is tracked up to $Ra\sim10^{7}$ by using a Newton-Krylov iteration. The exact coherent thermal convection exhibits scaling $Nu\sim Ra^{0.31}$ (where $Nu$ is the Nusselt number) as well as multi-scale thermal plume and vortex structures, which are quite similar to those in the turbulent Rayleigh-B\'enard convection. The mean temperature profiles and the root-mean-square of the temperature and velocity fluctuations are in good agreement with those of the turbulent states. Furthermore, the energy spectrum follows Kolmogorov's -5/3 scaling law with a consistent prefactor, and the energy transfer to smaller scales in the wavenumber space agrees with the turbulent energy transfer.