Towards differentiation of confined buoyancy-driven turbulence

Started: Oct 2016
Supervisor: Craske, Jvan Reeuwijk, M.

Description of Research

We encounter turbulent buoyancy driven flows in a wide range of natural and man-made environments, such as in atmospheric circulation or ventilation in buildings. Apart from properties inherent to the fluid, the respective flow is determined by the boundary conditions of the considered domain. In an applied context, these boundary conditions are often the only parameters open to manipulation and represent a primary source of uncertainties. It is thus highly desirable to understand the impact of the boundary conditions on the flow. Such sensitivity information enables us to e.g. to quantify the impact of uncertainties, investigate the stability of the system or determine extrema, which can be utilised in design optimisation or the construction of a worst-case scenario.

Using direct numerical simulations, I investigate confined buoyancy driven flows with different combinations of isolated and distributed sources of boundary heating. Among others, we aim to understand the boundary conditions effect on the topology of the mean flow, the resulting temperature field, the distribution of the mixing and the local values of the energy budget.

Combining localised and distributed heat sources: still of the instantaneous temperature field, with sketches of the imposed boundary buoyancy flux densitity f above and below the corresponding horizontal boundary
Combining localised and distributed heat sources: still of the instantaneous temperature field, with sketches of the imposed boundary buoyancy flux density f above and below the corresponding horizontal boundary

Background

Johanna is a graduate with a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Theoretical physics, both from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany.

JOHANNA MADER
Johanna MaderPhD Candidate - Fluid Mechanics 
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering 
Imperial College London SW7 2AZ 
j.mader16@imperial.ac.uk