Author(s): L. Shindler; M. Moroni; V. Dore; A. Cenedese
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: The motion of buoyancy driven plumes, i. e. Free Convection (FC), is, at all scales, the most common heat and momentum transfer mechanism in geophysical flows. Similarly, density stratification due to heating inequalities is also an ordinary scenario in nature. FC coupled with a density stratified fluid setting leads to the so-called Free Penetrative Convection (FPC). This paper is concerned with the non-steady phenomenon of penetrative convection in a stably stratified fluid reproduced in a water tank, with the aim of predicting the boundary layer growth and describing the fate of a tracer dissolved in the fluid. The equipment employed is suitable for simultaneously providing temperatures inside the domain through thermocouples and Lagrangian particle trajectories obtained by using the 3D-Particle Tracking Velocimetry technique. Novel algorithms have been developed to improve the effectiveness of the barycentre detection both in terms of barycentre number and accurateness, to strengthen the stereoscopic reconstruction and to lengthen the3D trajectories. The velocity data output by the 3D technique provide vertical velocity variance profiles which after being normalised fairly collapse on analogous measurements both at bench and real scale.
Year: 2010