kth.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Entrainment in dry and moist thermals
Jawaharlal Nehru Ctr Adv Sci Res, Engn Mech Unit, Jakkur 560064, Bengaluru, India..
Nordita, SU.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9299-7570
2022 (English)In: Physical Review Fluids, E-ISSN 2469-990X, Vol. 7, no 5, article id 050501Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We study entrainment in dry thermals in neutrally and unstably stratified ambients, and moist thermals in dry-neutrally stratified ambients using direct numerical simulations. We find, in agreement with results of Lecoanet and Jeevanjee [J. Atmos. Sci. 76, 3785 (2019)], that turbulence plays a minor role in entrainment in dry thermals in a neutral ambient for Reynolds numbers Re < 104. We then show that the net entrainment rate increases when the buoyancy of the thermals increases, either by condensation heating or because of an unstably stratified ambient. This is in contrast with the findings of Morrison et al. [J. Atmos. Sci. 78, 797 (2021)]. We also show that the role of turbulence is greater in these cases than in dry thermals and, significantly, that the combined action of condensation heating and turbulence creates intense small-scale vorticity, destroying the coherent vortex ring that is seen in dry and moist laminar thermals. These findings suggest that fully resolved simulations at Reynolds numbers significantly larger than the mixing transition Reynolds number Re = 104 are necessary to understand the role of turbulence in the entrainment in growing cumulus clouds, which consist of a series of thermals rising and decaying in succession.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
American Physical Society (APS) , 2022. Vol. 7, no 5, article id 050501
National Category
Physical Chemistry Fluid Mechanics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-313746DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.7.050501ISI: 000800619400004Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85130544279OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-313746DiVA, id: diva2:1667584
Note

QC 20220610

Available from: 2022-06-10 Created: 2022-06-10 Last updated: 2025-02-09Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Ravichandran, Sandhanakrishnan

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Ravichandran, Sandhanakrishnan
In the same journal
Physical Review Fluids
Physical ChemistryFluid Mechanics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 20 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf