Vortex Identification in Rotating Turbulent RAYLEIGH–BÉNARD Convection of Water

Abstract

We perform Direct Numerical Simulations of rotating turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in water, assuming that the material properties are either constant (Oberbeck–Boussinesq conditions) or vary with temperature (non-Oberbeck–Boussinesq conditions). One of the most remarkable features of rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection in is the generation of columnar vortex structures and their size is known to depend on the viscosity and diffusivity. We use various criteria to identify these vortices and analyse, in which way their extracted number, size and shape depends on the temperature-dependence of the material properties, the Rossby number and also the used identification criterion.