麻豆淫院icists take the temperature of fluid flows and discover new role for turbulence

麻豆淫院icists take the temperature of fluid flows and discover new role for turbulence
A recent experimental study, inspired by the super-rotation of the Earth's solid core, shows when turbulence flows contained in a cylinder interact with a free body a surprisingly smooth rotation is observed. The red (warm) and blue (cold) ribbons represent water flows. Credit: Kaizhe Wang and Jun Zhang.

A team of physicists has discovered a new role for a specific type of turbulence鈥攁 finding that sheds light on fluid flows ranging from the Earth's liquid core to boiling water.

The research, which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, centered on turbulent convection鈥攖he movement of fluid when heated from below.

"Our experiments reveal intricate movements between a free-moving body and thermal convective flows," says Jun Zhang, a professor of mathematics and physics at New York University and NYU Shanghai, the paper's senior author.

The study, which also included Kaizhe Wang, a researcher in NYU's Department of 麻豆淫院ics, focused specifically on Rayleigh鈥揃茅nard convection鈥攁 type of convection driven by temperature differences.

In their experiments, conducted in the Joint Research Institute of NYU Shanghai, the paper's authors used a cylindrical container filled with water, then heated it from the bottom, creating convective flows. The resulting turbulent flows interacted with a suspended solid (a rectangular panel) that moved freely inside the container鈥攁 setting that allowed the researchers to better study how turbulent flows interact with solid structures within.

"Surprisingly, the system becomes somewhat well-behaved," notes Zhang. "We observed a smooth rotation of the flows and the free solid."

Their results showed that turbulent convection powered flows, together with the solid, can move in two directions鈥攐ne clockwise and the other counterclockwise鈥攚ith the co-rotational speed increasing with the intensity of the convection. More than that, their rotation can sometimes switch directions, caused by the turbulence.

"The research, inspired by the rotation of Earth's as it interacts with the convective liquid core, captures the interaction between a and a freely moving body within the flow," explains Zhang. "The findings confirm that turbulence can be tamed by interacting with solids. It also reminds us that the power of thermal might play more important roles inside our planet Earth."

More information: Wang, Kaizhe et al, Persistent corotation of the large-scale flow of thermal convection and an immersed free body, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2023).

Provided by New York University

Citation: 麻豆淫院icists take the temperature of fluid flows and discover new role for turbulence (2023, May 15) retrieved 15 July 2025 from /news/2023-05-physicists-temperature-fluid-role-turbulence.html
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