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Combined measurement of velocity and temperature in liquid metal convection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2019

Till Zürner Open the ORCID record for Till Zürner [Opens in a new window] ,
Felix Schindler ,
Tobias Vogt ,
Sven Eckert  and
Jörg Schumacher Open the ORCID record for Jörg Schumacher [Opens in a new window]
Till Zürner*
Affiliation:
Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Postfach 100565, D-98684 Ilmenau, Germany
Felix Schindler
Affiliation:
Department of Magnetohydrodynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden – Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, D-01328 Dresden, Germany
Tobias Vogt
Affiliation:
Department of Magnetohydrodynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden – Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, D-01328 Dresden, Germany
Sven Eckert
Affiliation:
Department of Magnetohydrodynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden – Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, D-01328 Dresden, Germany
Jörg Schumacher
Affiliation:
Institute of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Postfach 100565, D-98684 Ilmenau, Germany
*
†Email address for correspondence: till.zuerner@tu-ilmenau.de
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Abstract

Combined measurements of velocity components and temperature in a turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection flow at a low Prandtl number of $Pr=0.029$ and Rayleigh numbers of $10^{6}\leqslant Ra\leqslant 6\times 10^{7}$ are conducted in a series of experiments with durations of more than a thousand free-fall time units. Multiple crossing ultrasound beam lines and an array of thermocouples at mid-height allow for a detailed analysis and characterization of the complex three-dimensional dynamics of the single large-scale circulation roll in a cylindrical convection cell of unit aspect ratio which is filled with the liquid metal alloy GaInSn. We measure the internal temporal correlations of the complex large-scale flow and distinguish between short-term oscillations associated with a sloshing motion in the mid-plane as well as varying orientation angles of the velocity close to the top/bottom plates and the slow azimuthal drift of the mean orientation of the roll as a whole that proceeds on a time scale up to a hundred times slower. The coherent large-scale circulation drives a vigorous turbulence in the whole cell that is quantified by direct Reynolds number measurements at different locations in the cell. The velocity increment statistics in the bulk of the cell displays characteristic properties of intermittent small-scale fluid turbulence. We also show that the impact of the symmetry-breaking large-scale flow persists to small-scale velocity fluctuations thus preventing the establishment of fully isotropic turbulence in the cell centre. Reynolds number amplitudes depend sensitively on beam-line position in the cell such that different definitions have to be compared. The global momentum and heat transfer scalings with Rayleigh number are found to agree with those of direct numerical simulations and other laboratory experiments.

JFM classification

Turbulent Flows: Turbulent convection
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 876 , 10 October 2019 , pp. 1108 - 1128
Copyright
© 2019 Cambridge University Press 

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