Numerical simulation of turbulent thermal convection based on LBM

Abstract

The two-dimensional (2D) turbulent thermal convection is numerically investigated by using Lattice Boltzmann Method. The 2D turbulence is considered as 2D channel flow where the flow is forced by the arrays of adiabatic cylinders placed in the inlet and wall boundary of 2D channel, which is heated uniformly from the inlet as to inspire the paradigmatic motion of thermal convection. It is found that the spacing vortex number density distribution in the large-scale range [Formula: see text], based on the Liutex vortex definition criterion, which is in fair agreement with the Benzi prediction. The energy spectrum of the Liutex field [Formula: see text]. The scaling behavior of full-field energy spectrum in the large scale is [Formula: see text]. The temperature spectrum in the large-scale range is found to be approximate to [Formula: see text], which is according with the Bolgiano theory of 2D buoyancy driven turbulence. The energy flux cascades to the large scale, the enstrophy cascades to small scale. The moments of the energy dissipation field [Formula: see text] coarse grained at the scale [Formula: see text] have the power-law behaviors with the scale [Formula: see text]. The velocity intermittency measured by PDF exists in large-scale range of 2D turbulent thermal convection. The measured scaling exponents [Formula: see text] are determined by a lognormal formula. The measured intermittency parameter is [Formula: see text], which denotes the strong intermittency in the large-scale range of 2D turbulent thermal convection.