Rigorous scaling laws for internally heated convection at infinite Prandtl number

Arslan A, Fantuzzi G, John C, Wynn A (2023)


Publication Language: English

Publication Status: In review

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Future Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2023

Journal

Book Volume: 64

Article Number: 023101

DOI: 10.1063/5.0098250

Open Access Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.03175

Abstract

New bounds are proven on the mean vertical convective heat transport, \overline{⟨wT⟩}, for uniform internally heated (IH) convection in the limit of infinite Prandtl number. For fluid in a horizontally-periodic layer between isothermal boundaries, we show that \overline{⟨wT⟩}≤1/2−cR−2, where R is a nondimensional `flux' Rayleigh number quantifying the strength of internal heating and c=216. Then, \overline{⟨wT⟩}=0 corresponds to vertical heat transport by conduction alone, while \overline{⟨wT⟩}>0 represents the enhancement of vertical heat transport upwards due to convective motion. If, instead, the lower boundary is a thermal insulator, then we obtain \overline{⟨wT⟩}≤1/2−cR−4, with c≈0.0107. This result implies that the Nusselt number Nu, defined as the ratio of the total-to-conductive heat transport, satisfies Nu≲R4. Both bounds are obtained by combining the background method with a minimum principle for the fluid's temperature and with Hardy-Rellich inequalities to exploit the link between the vertical velocity and temperature. In both cases, power-law dependence on R improves the previously best-known bounds, which, although valid at both infinite and finite Prandtl numbers, approach the uniform bound exponentially with R.

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APA:

Arslan, A., Fantuzzi, G., John, C., & Wynn, A. (2023). Rigorous scaling laws for internally heated convection at infinite Prandtl number. Journal of Mathematical Physics, 64. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0098250

MLA:

Arslan, Ali, et al. "Rigorous scaling laws for internally heated convection at infinite Prandtl number." Journal of Mathematical Physics 64 (2023).

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