Physics of Buoyant Flows (ePub)

-->Gravity pervades the whole universe; hence buoyancy drives fluids everywhere including those in the atmospheres and interiors of planets and stars. Prime examples of such flows are mantle convection, atmospheric flows, solar convection, dynamo process, heat exchangers, airships and hot air balloons. In this book we present fundamentals and applications of thermal convection and stratified flows.Buoyancy brings in extremely rich phenomena including waves and instabilities, patterns, chaos, and turbulence. In this book we present these topics in a systematic manner. First we present a unified treatment of linear theory that yields waves and thermal instability for stably and unstably-stratified flows respectively. We extend this analysis to include rotation and magnetic field. We also describe nonlinear saturation and pattern formation in Rayleigh–Bénard convection.The second half of the book is dedicated to buoyancy-driven turbulence, both in stably-stratified flow and in thermal convection. We describe the spectral theory including energy flux and show that the thermally-driven turbulence is similar to hydrodynamic turbulence. We also describe large-scale quantities like Reynolds and Nusselt numbers, flow anisotropy, and the dynamics of flow structures, namely flow reversals. Thus, this book presents all the major aspects of the buoyancy-driven flows in a coherent manner that would appeal to advanced graduate students and researchers. -->Contents:Basic Formulation, Patterns, and Chaos:IntroductionBasic FrameworkFourier Space DescriptionEnergy Transfers in Buoyancy-Driven FlowsWaves in Stably-Stratified FlowsInstability in Thermal ConvectionNonlinear SaturationPatterns and Chaos in Buoyancy-Driven FlowsBoundary Layer, Bulk, and Exact Relations in Thermal ConvectionTurbulent Buoyant Flows:A Survey of Hydrodynamic TurbulenceScaling of Large-Scale Quantities in RBCPhenomenology of Stably Stratified TurbulenceCPhenomenology for Turbulent Thermal ConvectionTurbulence Phenomenology of Other Buoyancy-Driven FlowsAnisotropy in Thermally-Driven TurbulenceShell Models for Buoyancy-Driven TurbulenceStructures and Flow Reversals in RBCTurbulence Phenomenology for RBCBuoyant Flows with Rotation and Magnetic Field:Rotating FlowsBuoyant and Rotating FlowsMagnetohydrodynamics and Rotating FlowsBuoyant Flows Under Magnetic FieldBuoyant and Rotating Flows Under Magnetic FieldDouble Diffusive ConvectionConclusionsAppendices:Thermal Parameters of Common FluidsPhase and Group Velocities of a Wave PacketBuoyant and Rotating Flows Under Magnetic FieldProper Orthogonal Decomposition of RBC --> -->Readership: Graduate students and researchers in fluid mechanics, nonlinear dynamical systems, and related fields. -->Thermal Convection;Rayleigh-Bénard Convection;Buoyancy-Driven Flows;Stably-Stratified Flows;Thermal Instability;Gravity Waves;Thermally-Driven Turbulence;Flow Reversal0Key Features:Starts from basic principles and develops advanced topics in simple waysHighlights varied phenomena of buoyancy-driven flows — waves, instability, patterns, and turbulence — in unified and systematic mannerCovers current results in the field