Turbulent fluxes of entropy and internal energy in temperature stratified flows

Abstract

We derive equations for the mean entropy and the mean internal energy in low-Mach-number temperature stratified turbulence (i.e. for turbulent convection or stably stratified turbulence), and show that turbulent flux of entropy is given by$\boldsymbol{F}_{s}=\overline{{\it\rho}}\,\overline{\boldsymbol{u}s}$, where$\overline{{\it\rho}}$is the mean fluid density,$s$is fluctuation of entropy and overbars denote averaging over an ensemble of turbulent velocity fields,$\boldsymbol{u}$. We demonstrate that the turbulent flux of entropy is different from the turbulent convective flux,$\boldsymbol{F}_{c}=\overline{T}\,\overline{{\it\rho}}\,\overline{\boldsymbol{u}s}$, of the fluid internal energy, where$\overline{T}$is the mean fluid temperature. This turbulent convective flux is well-known in the astrophysical and geophysical literature, and it cannot be used as a turbulent flux in the equation for the mean entropy. This result is exact for low-Mach-number temperature stratified turbulence and is independent of the model used. We also derive equations for the velocity–entropy correlation,$\overline{\boldsymbol{u}s}$, in the limits of small and large Péclet numbers, using the quasi-linear approach and the spectral${\it\tau}$approximation, respectively. This study is important in view of different applications to astrophysical and geophysical temperature stratified turbulence.