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The multifractal nature of plume structure in high-Rayleigh-number convection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2005

BABURAJ A. PUTHENVEETTIL
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
G. ANANTHAKRISHNA
Affiliation:
Materials Research Center, and Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Indiagarani@mrc.iisc.ernet.in
JAYWANT H. ARAKERI
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Abstract

The geometrically different planforms of near-wall plume structure in turbulent natural convection, visualized by driving the convection using concentration differences across a membrane, are shown to have a common multifractal spectrum of singularities for Rayleigh numbers in the range $10^{10}$$10^{11}$ at Schmidt number of 602. The scaling is seen for a length scale range of $2^5$ and is independent of the Rayleigh number, the flux, the strength and nature of the large-scale flow, and the aspect ratio. Similar scaling is observed for the plume structures obtained in the presence of a weak flow across the membrane. This common non-trivial spatial scaling is proposed to be due to the same underlying generating process for the near-wall plume structures.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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