Similarities between the structure functions of thermal convection and hydrodynamic turbulence

Shashwat Bhattacharya, Shubhadeep Sadhukhan, Anirban Guha, Mahendra K. Verma

Published 2019-03-03Version 1

In this paper, we analyze the scaling of velocity structure functions of turbulent thermal convection. Using high-resolution numerical simulations, we show that the structure functions scale similar to those of hydrodynamic turbulence, with the scaling exponents fitting well with the hierarchy model of She & Leveque (1994). Our results are consistent with Kolmogorov's energy spectrum observed in turbulent convection; they also agree with a modified version of Kolmogorov's theory for hydrodynamic turbulence applied to thermal convection. The probability distribution functions of velocity increments are non-Gaussian with wide tails in the dissipative scales and become close to Gaussian in the inertial range. The tails of the probability distribution follow a stretched exponential. We also show that in thermal convection, the energy flux in the inertial range is less than the viscous dissipation rate. This is unlike in hydrodynamic turbulence where the energy flux and the dissipation rate are equal.