Buoyancy-driven variable-density turbulence

Abstract

Buoyancy-generated motions in an unstably stratified medium composed of two incompressible miscible fluids with different densities, as occurs in the variable-density Rayleigh–Taylor instability, are examined using direct numerical simulations. The non-equilibrium homogeneous buoyantly driven problem is proposed as a unit problem for variable density turbulence to study: (i) the nature of variable density turbulence, (ii) the transition to turbulence and the generation of turbulence by the conversion of potential to kinetic energy; (iii) the role of non-Boussinesq effects; and (iv) a parameterization of the initial conditions by a static Reynolds number. Simulations are performed for Atwood numbers up to 0.5 with root mean square density up to 50% of the mean density and Schmidt numbers, 0.1 ≤ Sc ≤ 2. The benchmark problem has been designed to have the largest mass flux possible and is, in this configuration, the maximally unstable non-equilibrium flow possible. It is found that the mass flux, owing to its central role in the conversion of potential to kinetic energy, is probably the single most important dynamical quantity to predict in lower-dimensional models. Other primary findings include the evolution of the mean pressure gradient: during the non-Boussinesq portions of the flow, the evolution of the mean pressure gradient is non-hydrostatic (as opposed to a Boussinesq fluid) and is set by the evolution of the specific volume pressure gradient correlation. To obtain the numerical solution, a new pressure projection algorithm which treats the pressure step exactly, useful for simulations of non-solenoidal velocity flows, has been constructed.