### Session EH: Convection and Buoyancy Driven Flows III

4:10 PM–6:20 PM, Sunday, November 21, 2010
Long Beach Convention Center Room: 103C

Chair: Ross Griffiths, The Australian National University

Abstract ID: BAPS.2010.DFD.EH.5

### Abstract: EH.00005 : Three-dimensional extraction and analysis of thermal plumes in turbulent Rayleigh-B\'enard convection

5:02 PM–5:15 PM

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#### Authors:

Matthias Kaczorowski
(The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Olga Shishkina
(German Aerospace Center)

Ke-Qing Xia
(The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

We report a new method for extracting the thermal plumes (TPs) in turbulent Rayleigh-B\'enard convection (RBC) which allows us to analyze the properties of the TPs and the background fluid. The investigation is based on direct numerical simulations of RBC in a cube ($8\times10^6 \le Ra \le 5\times10^9$) filled with fluid of Prandtl number $Pr = 4.38$. The basis of our extraction method is the idea that plumes convectively transport heat through the fluid, so that a heat flux threshold can be employed to extract the TPs. It is shown that this method yields reliable results over a wide range of $Ra$ and at any vertical wall distance $z$. Characteristic quantities of the flow are investigated on the boundaries of the TPs and the mean properties of the TPs and the background fluid are investigated as a function of the vertical coordinate. The $Ra$-scaling of a characteristic length scale of the TPs is examined and compared to taht of the thermal boundary layer thickness.

To cite this abstract, use the following reference: http://meetings.aps.org/link/BAPS.2010.DFD.EH.5