Vortical nature of thermal plumes in turbulent convection

Abstract

Thermal plumes in Rayleigh–Bénard convection have been observed to occur with strong vertical component of vorticity, resulting in spiraling hot updrafts and cold downdrafts. Results from two different simulations at Rayleigh numbers 9800 and 33 000 times the critical Rayleigh number close to the boundaries show rapid increase in the conditional averages of vertical velocity and temperature perturbation at large values of vertical vorticity. This result along with the spatial distribution of vertical vorticity indicates a strong correlation between narrow regions of upmoving hot fluid (or downmoving cold fluid) and local vertical vorticity. The horizontal dimension of these vortical plumes is an order of magnitude smaller than the layer depth, but they extend up to half the convective layer in the vertical direction.