Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Professor at the University of Twente

Wind energy · Turbulence · Environmental flows

Publication 92 · Thermal convection

How small-scale flow structures affect the heat transport in sheared thermal convection

G.S. Yerragolam, R. Verzicco, D. Lohse, R.J.A.M. Stevens, J. Fluid Mech. 944, A1 (2022).

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Main finding

Small- and large-scale spectral peaks coexist at the thermal-layer height.

Premultiplied convective spectra at two normalisations across a range of shear strengths
How to read the figure. Premultiplied spectra of the convective heat flux at the thermal boundary layer height, normalised by the domain height (top row) and by a small-scale length (bottom row), across shear strengths from none to strong. A small-scale and a large-scale peak are present at the same height, each marked, so the heat transport there is carried at two separated scales rather than one. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 5. G.S. Yerragolam et al. (2022). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

Resolving the coexisting spectral peaks connects near-wall plume organization to the nonmonotonic heat-transfer response under shear.

Research context

The coexistence of small- and large-scale spectral peaks is demonstrated at fixed Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers across the imposed-shear sweep. The proposed preference for plume and velocity fluctuations perpendicular to the shear would require conditional momentum averaging and broader parameter tests.

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