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Natural convection in a gravitational field is ubiquitous in viscosity and thermal diffusivity, respectively. The global re-
nature and in many important technological systems. It has sponse to buoyant forcing is measured by Nusselt number
been the subject of extensive studies in theory, experiments, 共Nu兲, mean 共or max兲 flow velocity u, and Reynolds number.
and numerical simulations 共cf., reviews 关1–3兴 and references The last is for turbulent convection only.
therein兲. Rayleigh-Bernard convection 共RBC兲, a special form In this study, we numerically investigate in detail power-
of natural convection driven by a vertical temperature gradi- law scaling 共PLS兲 of Nu on Ra in laminar convection subject
ent, has become a classic system for the study of buoyancy- to horizontal temperature gradient. The classical scaling is
induced turbulence. One of the most dramatic discoveries nearly identical to that in turbulent RBC as well as in natural
from classical experiments on this system in the turbulent convection over single plate and in inclined enclosures.
convection regime is the 共effective兲 power-law dependencies Based on detailed examinations we find that the existence of
of heat transport on dimensionless buoyancy forcing with a large-scale circulation 共LSC兲, the resultant boundary lay-
scaling exponents between 0.25 and 0.33 关4兴. Significant ef- ers, and interior temperature distribution are sufficient to pro-
forts, both numerically and experimentally, have been di- duce the classic near 1 / 3 PLS 共here “near 1 / 3” means the
rected at investigating the mechanisms and detailed scaling exponent can be in the range from 0.286 to 0.33 as exten-
sively reported in literature兲. We thus conjecture that 共1兲 al-
behavior of turbulent RBC. Another type of natural convec-
though turbulence produces rich nonuniversal flow dynamics
tion driven by a horizontal temperature gradient is just as
it has little effect on the average global heat transfer. 共2兲
important in practical applications but has received much Similar near 1 / 3 PLS is a universal characteristic for thermal
less attention from the physics community. It is mostly se- convection and should exist in different flow regimes in all
lected as a validation problem to compare numerical algo- closed cavities with various temperature gradient arrange-
rithms designed for solving the Navier-Stokes or Boltzmann ments. 共3兲 Side-heated and inclined cavities may provide al-
equations, or for turbulence modeling and computation. The- ternative routes to study the effects of turbulence on heat
oretical, numerical, and experimental work 关5–11兴 on this transfer in natural convection.
system has investigated flow patterns, temperature distribu- Mathematically, natural convection is generally described
tions, flow instabilities, etc., mostly focusing more on the using the Boussinesq approximation which assumes that all
transition to unsteady flow or the effects of aspect ratio on fluid properties remain constant except in the buoyant force
heat transfer at moderately high Rayleigh number 共Ra兲. where the fluid density is linearly proportional to the tem-
We demonstrate that natural convection in these two con- perature. Consider a flow confined in a cavity with height H
figurations as well as plate 关12兴 and inclined enclosures 共z direction兲 and width L 共x direction兲 where the aspect ratio
关13,14兴 share some important characteristics. Although the of the cavity is defined as ⌫ = H / L. A dimensionless scaling
flow regimes can be very different in that one can be com- for the flow uses width L, velocity / L, pressure 2 Ra/ L2,
pletely laminar whereas the other governed, at least in the time L2 / , and temperature difference ⌬T 共=Th − Tl兲 to non-
bulk, by strong turbulent fluctuations, the heat transfer scal- dimensionalize the respective quantities in the Boussinesq
ing with forcing is very similar within a certain range. equations. Here Th and Tl are the heated and cooled wall
Natural convection is characterized by the Rayleigh num- temperatures and is the mean fluid density. The dimension-
ber Ra= g␣⌬Td3 / and the Prandtl number Pr= / with g less Boussinesq equations for incompressible flow read 关1兴
the acceleration of gravity, ␣ the thermal expansion coeffi-
cient, ⌬T the applied temperature difference, d the distance vជ ជ vជ = − ⵜ
ជ p + ⵜ2vជ + Ra Pr ⌰ẑ,
+ vជ · ⵜ d 共1兲
along the temperature gradient, and and the kinematic t
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SCALING IN LAMINAR NATURAL CONVECTION IN… PHYSICAL REVIEW E 76, 026303 共2007兲
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YU, LI, AND ECKE PHYSICAL REVIEW E 76, 026303 共2007兲
conduction flux jc = ⌬T / L, by definition we have Nu from studies on the so-called “ultimate state,” where turbu-
= jh / jc = L / t = 共Ra/ Rat兲1/3 = 0.13 Ra1/3. This result slightly lence truly dominates 共the exponent is 1 / 2兲. In experimental
over predicts Nu obtained from the simulations. Following 关26兴 and theoretical 关27兴 studies, the onset of such scaling
the same simple procedure for RBC, and not using the mar- does not coincide with the onset of turbulence. Rather, break-
ginal stability argument for the boundary layer thickness, down of boundary layers appears to be necessary in reaching
Nu= 共Ra/ Rac兲1/3 = 0.084 Ra1/3. In addition, the natural exis- the ultimate state, and it takes place deep into the hard tur-
tence of a LSC in the laterally heated cavities and the attain- bulence regime.
ment of 0.31 PLS nearly identical to that in RBC suggests Based on this work and literature review, we propose a set
the modification of LSC to the 1 / 3 PLS may have some of experiments that can validate our conjectures. In RBC
universal features. systems, one can change the cross section to change the sym-
metry, thus changing the persistence and fluctuation of the
This work systematically examines the heat transfer and
LSC. A simultaneous measurement of Nu, LSC amplitude,
flow properties in laminar natural convection in laterally
and turbulence intensity should show strong correlation be-
heated cavities with numerical simulations and demonstrates tween the first two, but weak correlation with the last. One
the fundamental role of LSC in natural convection in closed can also tilt the convection systems and measure the scaling
cavities. The transition from conduction-dominated heat of heat transfer as the flow transitions from laminar to turbu-
transfer to a convection-dominated regime, first proposed in lent. If it is the LSC, not turbulence, that determines the heat
the theoretical work of Batchelor, is clearly analyzed. The transfer, the near 1 / 3 scaling would span the transition with
resulting threshold Rat, akin to the role of the critical Rac in no discontinuity. This is clearly seen in Belmonte’s work
RBC, is explored and used in the study of the transition to 关22,23兴 for boundary layer thickness. Further confirmation
power scaling in Nu, velocity, and thermal and viscous may be achieved in heat transfer measurement, and extension
boundary layers. Such scalings, all existing in laminar flow, of Ra to beyond 1011. In addition, one can suppress turbu-
are found to be nearly identical to those in turbulent RBC lence in RBC and repeat the heat transfer measurement.
and other natural convection systems, prompting us to pro- In summary, we believe that based on our work and in-
pose that LSC and the resultant boundary layers and strati- sight from a large body of work, the complexity and mecha-
fied interior are sufficient to produce the classical near 1 / 3 nisms for the “near 1 / 3” scaling in Nu vs Ra in natural
共0.31兲 PLS for heat transfer in all natural convection in convection in cavities 共RBC and side-heated are special lim-
closed cavities over an extended range, and that the role of iting cases兲 would be reduced and elucidated, respectively,
turbulence is not essential in this regard. Our claim is bol- by our conjecture. This work establishes a paradigm in the
stered by the very suggestive derivation of the prefactor study of natural convection in closed cavities and offers al-
which means that heat transfer scaling is solely based on ternative routes to study the effects of LSC and turbulence.
laminar flow properties.
Some previous studies came very close but did not reach H. Yu thanks Dr. J. Zhang for the support to initiate this
this explicit conclusion. Further evidence can be gleamed work.
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