Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T16:02:36.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Convection in horizontal layers with internal heat generation. Experiments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2006

D. J. Tritton  and
M. N. Zarraga
D. J. Tritton
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
M. N. Zarraga
Affiliation:
School of Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A largely qualitative experimental investigation has been made of cellular convection patterns produced by the instability of a horizontal layer of fluid heated uniformly throughout its body and cooled from above. The fluid was aqueous zinc sulphate solution, and the heating was produced by an electrolytic current. The flow was visualized and photographed using polystyrene beads which, because of a differential expansion, came out of suspension in regions where the fluid was hotter or colder than average.

The development of the cellular patterns as the Rayleigh number (a modified form) was varied was in many respects similar to that for Bénard convection. There were, however, two striking differences. First, the fluid descended in the centres of the cells and ascended at the peripheries; this was probably associated with the asymmetry between the heating and cooling. Secondly, and more surprisingly, the horizontal scale of the convection patterns was unusually large (except at the lowest Rayleigh numbers); the distance between rising and falling currents was observed to reach typically five times the depth of the layer.

This last observation may be relevant to theories of convection within the Earth's mantle, to mesoscale convection in the atmosphere, and to patterns formed in ice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , 17 October 1967 , pp. 21 - 31
Copyright
© 1967 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chandrasekhar, S. 1961 Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability. Oxford University Press.
Fromm, J. E. 1965 Phys. Fluids, 8, 1757.
Hubert, L. F. 1966 U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Environmental Science Services Administration, Meteorological Satellite Laboratory, Rept. no. 37.
Krueger, A. F. & Fritz, S. 1961 Tellus, 13, 1.
Palm, E. 1960 J. Fluid Mech. 8, 183.
Pearson, J. R. A. 1958 J. Fluid Mech. 4, 489.
Roberts, P. H. 1967 J. Fluid Mech. 30, 33.
Rossby, H. T. 1966 Mass. Inst. Tech., Dept. Geol. Geophys., Sci. Rept. HRF/SR 27.
Runcorn, S. K. 1962 Nature, Lond. 193, 311.
Schmidt, E. & Silveston, P. L. 1959 Chem. Engng. Prog., Symposium Series, Heat Transfer, 55, 163.
Segel, L. A. & Stuart, J. T. 1962 J. Fluid Mech. 13, 289.
Silveston, P. L. 1958 Forsch. Geb. Ing Wes. 24, 29, 59.
Sparrow, E. M., Goldstein, R. J. & Jonsson, V. K. 1964 J. Fluid Mech. 18, 513.
Stuart, J. T. 1963 Hydrodynamic Stability, Sect. IX of Laminar Boundary Layers ed. L. Rosenhead Oxford University Press.
Tippelskirch, H. Von 1956 Beitr. Phys. Atmos. 29, 37.
Tozer, D. C. 1965 Phil. Trans. A 258, 252.
Willis, G. E. & Deardorff, J. W. 1965 Phys. Fluids, 8, 2225.
Woodcock, A. H. & Riley, G. A. 1947 J. Met. 4, 100.