Helicity oscillations in Rayleigh-Bénard convection of liquid metal in a cell with aspect ratio 0.5

R. Mitra, F. Stefani, V. Galindo, S. Eckert, M. Sieger, T. Vogt, T. Wondrak

Published 2024-04-18Version 1

In this paper, we present numerical and experimental results on helicity oscillations in a liquid-metal Rayleigh-B\'enard (RB) convection cell, with an aspect ratio of 0.5. We find that helicity oscillations occur during transitions of flow states that are characterised by significant changes in the Reynolds number. Moreover, we also observe helicity oscillations at flow conditions where the temporal gradient of the change in the Reynolds number is significantly smaller than that of the helicity. Notably, the helicity oscillations observed during the transient double-roll state exhibit characteristics remarkably similar to those associated with the Tayler Instability.