Rotating Convection

Transient Convective Spin-UP

Spin-up is the process by which the fluid in a container attains the angular velocity of its container. This process, which can be observed in a teacup*, is also important on planetary scales.

We studied pattern-formation during spin-up using high-resolution numerical simulations in [1].

Wall Modes

We also study so-called wall-modes, which arise when the Rayleigh number in rotating convection in a container is not much greater than the critical Rayleigh number. These patterns generally move in a retrograde direction (i.e. against the direction of rotation). We study the effects of thermal and velocity boundary conditions on this propagation.

*See Einstein's paper on the Teacup Paradox, printed in translation here:

Papers:

1) Ravichandran and Wettlaufer, J. Fluid Mech. (2020)

2) Ravichandran and Wettlaufer, J. Fluid Mech. (2024)