Convection in rotating non-uniformly stratified spherical fluid shells in dependence on Ekman and Prandtl numbers

0336377 - GFÚ 2010 RIV NL eng J - Journal Article
Šimkanin, Ján - Hejda, Pavel - Saxonbergová-Jankovičová, Dana
Convection in rotating non-uniformly stratified spherical fluid shells in dependence on Ekman and Prandtl numbers.
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors. Roč. 178, č. 3-4 (2010), s. 39-47. ISSN 0031-9201. E-ISSN 1872-7395
R&D Projects: GA AV ČR IAA300120704
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30120515; CEZ:AV0Z30420517
Keywords : rotating convection * non-uniform stratification * penetrative convection * small-scale structures
Subject RIV: DE - Earth Magnetism, Geodesy, Geography
Impact factor: 2.640, year: 2010

We present an investigation of rotating convection in non-uniformly stratified spherical shells in dependence on Prandtl, Ekman and Rayleigh numbers. Attention is focused on the case in which the thickness of both sublayers (stable and unstable) is identical, which was not investigated before. Influence of stratification is more evident at small values of Rayleigh numbers (large values of Ekman numbers), at large Rayleigh numbers is almost negligible. For small Rayleigh numbers in the case of uniform stratification a large-scale columnar convection is developed in the whole volume, in the case of non-uniform stratification it is suppressed to the unstably stratified region but slightly penetrates to the stably stratified one, except the case of large Prandtl numbers when the convection significantly penetrate to the stably stratified region.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0180621