Statistical Theory of Thermal Convection at Large Prandtl Number

Thermal convection for large Prandtl numbers.

The Rayleigh-Bénard theory by Grossmann and Lohse [J. Fluid Mech. 407, 27 (2000)] is extended towards very large Prandtl numbers Pr. The Nusselt number Nu is found here to be independent of Pr. However, for fixed Rayleigh numbers Ra a maximum in the Nu(Pr) dependence is predicted. We moreover offer the full functional dependences of Nu(Ra,Pr) and Re(Ra,Pr) within this extended theory, rather th...

Stationary Statistical Properties of Rayleigh-Bénard Convection at Large Prandtl Number

This is the third in a series of our study of Rayleigh-Bénard convection at large Prandtl number. Here we investigate whether stationary statistical properties of the Boussinesq system for Rayleigh-Bénard convection at large Prandtl number are related to those of the infinite Prandtl number model for convection that is formally derived from the Boussinesq system via setting the Prandtl number t...

Effects of vertical boundaries on infinite Prandtl number thermal convection

The physics of thermomechanical coupling of the continental lithosphere and its surrounding mantle is studied using a simple hydrodynamic model in which a fluid is heated from below and is bounded by rigid side walls. Rayleigh numbers up to 10 are considered. A series of finite-element stability analyses is employed to characterize systematically the nature of convective instability in such a s...

Bifurcation of Infinite Prandtl Number Rotating Convection

We consider infinite Prandtl number convection with rotation which is the basic model in geophysical fluid dynamics. For the rotation free case, the rigorous analysis has been provided by Park [15, 16, 17] under various boundary conditions. By thoroughly investigating We prove in this paper that the solutions bifurcate from the trivial solution u = 0 to an attractor ΣR which consists of only on...

Internal heating driven convection at infinite Prandtl number