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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Simulation and identification of deterministic structures in thermal and magnetic convection
Kemal Hanjalić1, Sasa Kenjeres
1Department of Applied Physics, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. hanjalic@ws.tn.tudelft.nl
Abstract:
Large-scale vortical structures, found in many flows in nature, in laboratory or industrial equipment, have often a deterministic character. Simulation, identification, visualization, and interpretation of such structures is essential for understanding the physics of turbulence and transport processes, and for their control, but still poses a challenge especially in complex flows at high Reynolds and Rayleigh numbers. We show that such structures can be simulated by a transient Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (T-RANS) approach. Various structure-identification methods show that the captured deterministic structures resemble closely those obtained from experiments or direct numerical simulations (DNS). The potential of the T-RANS method is illustrated by examples of classical and magnetic Rayleigh-Bénard (R-B) convection in a range of Rayleigh numbers that are at present inaccessible to experiments or other simulation techniques.
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