TY - JOUR
T1 - Streaks to rings to vortex grids: generic patterns in transient convective spin up of an evaporating fluid
AU - Zhong, J Q
AU - Patterson, Michael D
AU - Wettlaufer, J S
PY - 2010/7/23
Y1 - 2010/7/23
N2 - We observe the transient formation of a ringed pattern state during spin up of an evaporating fluid on a time scale of order a few Ekman spin up times. The ringed state is probed using infrared thermometry and particle image velocimetry and it is demonstrated to be a consequence of the transient balance between Coriolis and viscous forces which dominate inertia, each of which are extracted from the measured velocity field. The breakdown of the ringed state is quantified in terms of the antiphasing of these force components which drives a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and we show that the resulting vortex grid spacing scales with the ring wavelength. This is the fundamental route to quasi-two-dimensional turbulent vortex flow and thus may have implications in astrophysics and geophysics wherein rotating convection is ubiquitous.
AB - We observe the transient formation of a ringed pattern state during spin up of an evaporating fluid on a time scale of order a few Ekman spin up times. The ringed state is probed using infrared thermometry and particle image velocimetry and it is demonstrated to be a consequence of the transient balance between Coriolis and viscous forces which dominate inertia, each of which are extracted from the measured velocity field. The breakdown of the ringed state is quantified in terms of the antiphasing of these force components which drives a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability and we show that the resulting vortex grid spacing scales with the ring wavelength. This is the fundamental route to quasi-two-dimensional turbulent vortex flow and thus may have implications in astrophysics and geophysics wherein rotating convection is ubiquitous.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954914442&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.044504
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.044504
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.044504
M3 - Article
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 105
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 4
M1 - 044504
ER -