Experiments on Thermal Convection in Rotating Spherical Shells With Radial Gravity: The Geophysical Fluid Flow Cell
Year: 1996
Type: article
Abstract: Experiments designed to study the fluid dynamics of buoyancy driven circulations in rotating spherical shells were conducted on the United States Microgravity Laboratory 2 spacelab mission. These experiments address several aspects of prototypical global convection relevant to large scale motions on the Sun, Earth, and on the giant planets. The key feature is the consistent modeling of radially directed gravity in spherical geometry by using dielectric polarization forces. Imagery of the planforms of thermally driven flows for rapidly-rotating regimes shows an initial separation and eventual merger of equatorial and polar convection as the heating (i.e. the Rayleigh number) is increased. At low rotation rates, multiple-states of motion for the same external parameters were observed.
Author: John E. Hart
Language: English
Subfield: Computational Mechanics
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W43137976