Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Professor at the University of Twente

Wind energy · Turbulence · Environmental flows

Publication 70 · Thermal convection

Flow organization and heat transfer in turbulent wall sheared thermal convection

A. Blass, X. Zhu, R. Verzicco, D. Lohse, R.J.A.M. Stevens, J. Fluid Mech. 897, A22 (2020).

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Main finding

Nonmonotonic transport is directly demonstrated across the simulated matrix. Structure snapshots associate the minimum with thin, straight elongated rolls and later enhancement with very-large-scale meandering streaks. For Couette–RB, L_MO/H ≈ 0.16 Ri^-0.91 over the data, close to but distinct from a cited channel-flow fit.

Heat transport against wall shear at six Rayleigh numbers, showing a minimum then a rise
How to read the figure. (a) Nusselt number against the shear Reynolds number for six Rayleigh numbers; (b) the same normalised by the unsheared value. Transport falls to a minimum at moderate shear before rising above its unsheared level as shear increases further. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 5. A. Blass et al. (2020). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

Nonmonotonic transport is directly demonstrated across the simulated matrix. Structure snapshots associate the minimum with thin, straight elongated rolls and later enhancement with very-large-scale meandering streaks.

Research context

Imposed wall shear first organizes thin, straight rolls near the heat-transfer minimum and then produces meandering very-large-scale streaks as transport rises again. This provides a nonmonotonic forcing pathway distinct from confinement or rotation and links coherent structure directly to transport.

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