Numerical simulations of a thermocline in a pressure driven flow between two infinite horizontal plates

Magazine article, 2005

Direct Numerical Simulations of pressure driven flow between two infinite horizontal plates with a stabilizing temperature difference imposed on the plates are presented, for different Grashof numbers. A thermocline-like solution is obtained. The thermocline decorrelate velocity fluctuations which results in a high mean flow velocity. Temperature fluctuations decorrelate from the vertical velocity fluctuations and it is found that although and increase with Grashof number, decreases. It is argued from the simulations that this behavior is due to internal gravity waves. It is also found that the demands on the size of the computational box increasesas with Grashof number.