Media

Visual complement to the research highlights page: simulation videos from the group's work on wind-farm turbulence and canonical turbulent flows. See also research topics for background on each project.

Large-eddy simulation of wakes in an aligned wind farm

A three-dimensional visualization of the flow field in a simulated wind farm. The blue regions indicate low-velocity wind regions. These low-velocity regions, known as wind-turbine wakes, form behind the turbines and interact with each other and with the atmospheric boundary layer further downstream. Visualization made by David Bock (XSEDE, Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment).

R.J.A.M. Stevens, C. Meneveau, Flow Structure and Turbulence in Wind Farms, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 49, 311-339 (2017).
R.J.A.M. Stevens, D.F. Gayme, C. Meneveau, Effects of turbine spacing on the power output of extended wind-farms, Wind Energy 19 (2), 359-370 (2016).

Atmospheric boundary layer flow

Horizontal wind-speed field in a turbulent atmospheric boundary layer, 55 m above the surface. The streaky, elongated high- and low-speed regions are characteristic large-scale structures in the atmospheric surface layer that wind farms operate in.

See the turbulent boundary layer research page and the publications page for the corresponding papers.

Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Flow visualization of rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection. Background rotation reorganizes the flow into coherent vortical structures and changes how heat is transported through the fluid.

R.P.J. Kunnen, R.J.A.M. Stevens, J. Overkamp, C. Sun, G.J.F. van Heijst, H.J.H. Clercx, The role of Stewartson and Ekman layers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection, J. Fluid Mech. 688, 5-30 (2011).

Direct numerical simulation of Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Volumetric visualization of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection: hot plumes (orange/red) rise from the bottom plate and cold plumes (blue) sink from the top plate. This simulation was produced with AFiD, the group's open-source direct numerical simulation code.

See the thermal convection research page and the publications page for the corresponding papers.

Turbulent thermal superstructures

Large-aspect-ratio simulation of Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The left panel shows the full domain; the right panel zooms into the highlighted region, revealing the large-scale, slowly evolving thermal superstructures that organize the small-scale turbulent convection cells.

R.J.A.M. Stevens, A. Blass, X. Zhu, R. Verzicco, D. Lohse, Turbulent thermal superstructures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection, Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 041501 (2018).