Turbulent mesoscale convection in the Boussinesq limit and beyond

TL;DR

This review explores mesoscale convection through 3D simulations, examining boundary conditions, domain effects, and low Prandtl number regimes relevant to astrophysics, including non-Boussinesq effects and turbulence characteristics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of mesoscale convection beyond the Boussinesq approximation, highlighting effects of compressibility, boundary conditions, and low Prandtl numbers in turbulent flows.

Findings

Boundary conditions influence pattern formation.

Kinetic energy dissipation is key for turbulent mixing.

Compressibility affects turbulence statistics and multifractal properties.

Abstract

Mesoscale convection covers an intermediate scale range between small-scale turbulence and the global organization of the convection flow. It is often characterized by an order of the convection patterns despite very high Rayleigh numbers and strong turbulent fluctuations. In this review, we discuss several aspects of mesoscale convection, which have been investigated by three-dimensional direct numerical simulations. The numerical studies are performed in a characteristic configuration of a plane layer that is heated from below and cooled from above or subject to constant heat flux at the top and bottom boundaries. We discuss the role of the thermal and mechanical boundary conditions for structure formation and study the impact of the domain shape as well as the Prandtl number. With respect to the latter, we focus on low values that arise in astrophysical convection and are partly not anymore accessible in laboratory experiments with liquid metals. Beside these experiments in the Boussinesq approximation, we report studies of non-Boussinesq mesoscale convection. This is done by investigating effects of compressibility and temperature dependence of material properties. The kinetic energy dissipation rate turns out to remain a central quantity for the turbulent mixing in compressible convection. Their different components, statistics, relation to the turbulent viscosity, and the multifractal properties are discussed.