International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold water near its maximum

density in a vertical cylindrical container
Xiao-Jie Huang, You-Rong Li ⇑, Li Zhang, Chun-Mei Wu
Key Laboratory of Low-grade Energy Utilization Technologies and Systems of Ministry of Education, College of Power Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to understand the effects of density inversion parameter and Rayleigh number on the fluid
Received 11 May 2017 motion and heat transfer characteristics of penetrative Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical con-
Received in revised form 5 August 2017 tainer, a series of large eddy simulations were performed. The working fluid is cold water and Prandtl
Accepted 7 September 2017
number is 11.57. Rayleigh number up to 1011 is considered and the density inversion parameter ranges
Available online 15 September 2017
from 0 to 0.7. The results indicate that the effect of cold plumes on the larger scale circulation gradually
diminishes and finally disappears with the increase of density inversion parameter. Furthermore, an
Keywords:
increase of the temperature within the bulk region and a decrease of the penetration depth are also cer-
Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection
Cold water
tified with the increase of density inversion parameter. With the increase of Rayleigh number, soft and
Large eddy simulation hard turbulent states are successively observed. In the soft turbulence state, the evolution of Nusselt
Vertical cylindrical container number shows a weak fluctuation, the corresponding histogram has a Gaussian distribution, and the pen-
etration depth increases sharply with the increase of Rayleigh number. In the hard turbulence state, the
evolution of Nusselt number presents a much stronger fluctuation than that in the soft turbulence state,
the corresponding histogram fits more exponential distribution, and the variation of the penetration
depth with Rayleigh number is small. A single power law between the heat transfer efficiency (Nusselt
number) and Rayleigh number that covers soft and hard turbulence states is developed for each density
inversion parameter. It is found that the average Nusselt number decreases linearly with the increase of
density inversion parameter.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Rayleigh-Bénard convection is a classical system of thermal
convection, in which the fluid is heated from the bottom and
cooled on the top by horizontal uniform boundary temperatures
or heat fluxes [1–3]. Rayleigh-Bénard convection plays a crucial
role in nature and many engineering fields, such as the convection
in the atmosphere [4], in the earth [5], in the electronic devices and
in the solar collectors and so on [6].
As early as 1987, Heslot et al. [7] and Castaing et al. [8] in the
University of Chicago experimentally studied Rayleigh-Bénard
convection of helium at low temperature. They observed a soft tur-
bulence state (2.5
105 < Ra < 4
107) and a hard turbulence state
(4
107 < Ra < 6
1012). Then, many researchers paid their atten-
tion to soft and hard turbulence states in Rayleigh-Bénard convec-
tion by numerical and experimental methods. Peng et al. [9]
analyzed the scaling relationship in an open-ended domain by
Large Eddy Simulation (LES), where the Rayleigh (Ra) number var-
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: liyourong@cqu.edu.cn (Y.-R. Li).
ied from 6.3
105 to 109. They obtained a single relationship for
the variation of Nusselt (Nu) number with Rayleigh number where
the exponent is 0.286. Choi and Kim [10] numerically studied the
scale of Rayleigh number with Nusselt number in the soft turbu-
lence state (2
106 < Ra < 4
107) and the hard turbulence state
(108 < Ra < 109) with the elliptic-blending second-moment closure.
They predicted that Nusselt number follows two different correla-
tions in soft and hard turbulence states. Shibata [11] calculated the
heat conductivity in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection. They
found that the heat conductivity diverges stronger in the hard tur-
bulence state than that in the soft turbulence state. Riedinger et al.
[12] measured the heat flux in a slightly titled channel. They found
that different flow regimes develop from a soft turbulence state to
a hard turbulence state depending on the increase of the angle and
the applied power. Qiu and Tong [13,14] experimentally studied
the coherent events in an aspect-ratio-one cylindrical cell. A sharp
transition from a random chaotic state to a correlated turbulence
state is found when Rayleigh number exceeds 5
107, which offers
new perceptions on the soft and hard turbulence states.
The above numerical simulation studies on Rayleigh-Bénard
convection adopted the Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2017.09.021
0017-9310/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
186 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193

Nomenclature

C coefficient in heat transfer correlation W width (m)

cw subgrid turbulent model constant Xi Cartesian coordinate (m)
f oscillation frequency (Hz)
F dimensionless oscillation frequency Greek symbols
g gravity acceleration (m/s2) a thermal diffusivity (m2/s)
hj subgrid flux b exponent in heat transfer correlation
H height (m) c coefficient in density-temperature equation ((°C)q)
N sampling points D characteristic filter length (m)
Nu Nusselt number diZ Kronecker delta
Nuave average Nusselt number H dimensionless temperature, H = (T  Tc)/(Th  Tc)
Pr Prandtl number Hm density inversion parameter
Prt turbulent Prandtl number H filtered temperature field
P filtered pressure field q density (kg/m3)
q exponent in density-temperature equation s dimensionless time
Ra Rayleigh number based on the height sij subgrid tensor
RaT transient Rayleigh number m kinematic viscosity (m2/s)
Sij the symmetric part of velocity gradient mt eddy viscosity (m2/s)
T temperature (K) Xij antisymmetric part of velocity gradient
Tm maximum density temperature (K)
U0 reference velocity (m/s)
Ui filtered velocity component

[15,16], where the density of the fluid is assumed to be linear func- Tc and Th (Tc < Th) are applied at the top and bottom walls, respec-
tion of temperature. However, the density has the maximum value tively. The sidewall is adiabatic. No-slip and impermeable condi-
near 4 °C for the cold water, in which the Oberbeck-Boussinesq tions are imposed on all walls.
approximation is no longer applicable. This maximum density phe- The density of cold water near 4 °C is described as follows [22],
nomenon changes the flow dynamics and heat transfer character-
istics significantly. If the maximum density point is located
qðTÞ ¼ qm ð1  cjT  T m jq Þ; ð1Þ
between the bottom and top walls, the fluid in the convection cell where c = 9.297173
106 (°C)q, q = 1.894 816, qm = 999.972 kg/
could be divided into an unstable layer and a stratified stable layer. m3 and Tm = 4.029 325 °C. This density-temperature relation is
Convection occurs in the lower unstable fluid layer, the fluid applied for the buoyancy term in the momentum equation. Other
motion penetrates to the upper stable layer. Therefore, it is called physical parameters are assumed to be constant.
as penetrative convection. Veronis [17] employed the perturbation In this work, LES is used to simulate Rayleigh-Bénard convec-
method to investigate how far the fluid motion penetrated into the pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
tion of cold water. Using H, U 0 ¼ gcðT h  T c Þq H,
stable layer and put forward the term ‘‘penetrative convection”. pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2
Kuznetsova and Sibgatullin [18] described the evolution from con- s0 ¼ H= gcðT h  T c Þq H and qm ð gcðT h  T c Þq HÞ as the reference
ductive state to chaos in penetrative convection with the increase length, velocity, time and pressure, respectively. The dimensionless
of Rayleigh number. A series of flow bifurcations were determined. temperature is defined as H = (T  Tc)/(Th  Tc). Then, the non-
Large and Andereck [19] carried out some experimental investiga- dimensional filtered equations are written as follows
tions on penetrative Rayleigh-Bénard convection in water near its @U j
maximum density point. The results showed that symmetric flow ¼0 ð2Þ
@X j
structures are formed if the whole layer is unstable. However,
the symmetry will be destroyed by the existence of the stable  1=2 2
@U i @U i U j @P Pr @ Ui @ sij
layer. Mastiani et al. [20] and Hu et al. [21] investigated heat trans- þ ¼ þ þ þ jH  Hm jq diZ ð3Þ
fer characteristics of penetrative Rayleigh-Bénard convection. They @s @X j @X i Ra @X j @X j @X j
found that heat transfer rate in penetrative Rayleigh-Bénard con-
vection is lower than that in classical Rayleigh-Bénard convection. @ H @ HU j @2H @hj
þ ¼ ðPr  RaÞ1=2 þ ð4Þ
The above existing literatures on penetrative convection are pri- @s @X j @X j @X j @X j
marily concerned with laminar flow. Little attention has been paid
where Ra = gc(Th – Tc)qH3/(ma) is the Rayleigh (Ra) number and
to turbulent penetrative convection. Furthermore, there are a few
Pr = m/a is the Prandtl (Pr) number. Hm = (Tm – Tc)/(Th – Tc) is the
investigations on turbulent penetrative convection in Rayleigh-
density inversion parameter, which could describe the location of
Bénard system. In the present paper, we reported a series of the
the maximum density temperature in regard to the bottom and
simulation results on turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold
top wall temperatures.
water near its maximum density value by LES.
The key response of this system is the Nusselt (Nu) number,
which is calculated as the surface average of the dimensionless
2. Problem formulation heat transfer rate on the bottom wall, Nu = h@ H/@ZiA, where h. . .iA
stands for the average over the wall. In turbulent convection, in
2.1. Physical and mathematical model order to remove the effect of randomness, time average Nusselt
number is introduced, which is denoted as Nuave = h@ H/@ZiA,s,
We consider a cylindrical container with diameter D and height where h. . .iA,s denotes the average over the surface and the time.
H. It is filled with cold water near its maximum density. The aspect In the LES process, scales which are smaller than the grid size
ratio of the cylindrical container is D/H = 1. Constant temperatures are not resolved. In order to explain the subgrid turbulent effect
 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193 187

on the momentum and energy equations, the subgrid-scale stress

sij and the subgrid heat flux hj are introduced to close the filtered
three-dimensional (3D) Navier-Stokes equations
1
sij ¼ 2mt Sij þ dij skk ð5Þ
3

mt @ H
hj ¼ ð6Þ
Pr t @X j
where mt is the eddy viscosity and Prt is the turbulent Prandtl num-
ber. The resolved strain tensor Sij is defined as
!
1 @U i @U j
Sij ¼ þ ð7Þ
2 @X j @X i

Rodríguez et al. [23] evaluated the Rayleigh-Bénard convection

behavior on different LES models in a cylindrical cavity by compar-
ing with the results of the Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). They
found that Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity (WALE) model pre-
dicts quite well the DNS data even for coarse grids. Furthermore,
the WALE model also has the superiority when the CPU time is Fig. 2. The horizontal section sketch of the O-type grid.
considered. Therefore, the WALE model is used in the present LES
computation, in which the eddy viscosity mt is modeled as Ref. [24],
clustering near the side wall region, as used in Ref. [28]. Grid spac-
3=2
2 ðSdij Sdij Þ ing in the vertical direction is constructed with the Biexponential
mt ¼ ðcw DÞ 5=2 5=4
ð8Þ function. In order to check the densification of the grid, the grid
ðSij Sij Þ þ ðSdij Sdij Þ independent test is conducted. As listed in Table 1, a series of sim-
where ulations with different grids are performed at Hm = 0.5 when Ray-
leigh number is 109 or 1011. The deviation of the average Nusselt
1 2 1 @U i number at different grids is less than 5%. Therefore, when the com-
Sdij ¼ ðg þ g 2ji Þ  dij g 2ij ; g ij ¼
2 ij 3 @X j putational accuracy and the numerical cost are all taken into
account, the grid size of 179,000 is used for the case of Ra = 106–
The subgrid turbulent model constant cw is taken as 0.325 [25]
109 and the grid size of 642,000 is chosen for the case of
and the turbulent Prandtl number is assumed to be 0.86 [26].
Ra = 1010–1011.

2.2. Numerical method and validation check

The present numerical simulations are performed by using the
finite volume method. The pressure-velocity fields are coupled by
the SIMPLE algorithm. The governing equations for LES are solved
with the second-order accuracy in the space and the time. To val-
idate the proposed method for Rayleigh-Bénard convection, many
comparisons of the Nuave with high-resolution DNS database [27]
are presented in Fig. 1. Obviously, the present results agree well
with the reference results. The deviations between LES and DNS
results are less than 4%.
The grids used for the present LES are structured and non-
uniform. Fig. 2 shows the horizontal section sketch of the grid. A
O-type grid is generated in the calculated area with appropriate
Present
80
Ref. [27]
60
Nuave
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of density inversion parameter
The flow behavior of Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold water
near its maximum density is rich, varied and complicated. This sec-
tion commits to study the flow dynamics at different density inver-
sion parameters when Rayleigh number is fixed at Ra = 109.
Up to now, the formulation mechanism of large scale circulation
(LSC) in Rayleigh-Bénard convection of common fluids has been
widely studied [27,29]. Xi et al. [30] reported an experimental
result on Rayleigh-Bénard convection from the steady flow state
to the developed turbulence state in a cylindrical container. They
revealed that LSC is formed by the interaction between hot and
cold plumes. The hot plumes are released from the bottom thermal
boundary layer, and then they gather together in one side of the
container and move upward. Similarly, cold plumes congregate in
a downward jet in another side of the container. The arising hot
plumes and the descending cold plumes lead to the formulation
of LSC which moves along the sidewall. Lappa [31] also explained
the similar flow mechanism numerically in two dimensional

Rayleigh-Bénard convection.
40 The flow mechanism of Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold
water near its maximum density is different from that in common
fluids. Fig. 3(a-d) shows the isothermal surfaces with different
20
temperatures. The contour values are from 0.1 to 0.9 with step of
0.1. In the case of Hm = 0, the density of the cold water decreases
6 7 8 9 with the increase of temperature. Therefore, in the whole fluid
10 10 10 10
Ra layer, hot plumes with lower density rise from the bottom of the
cell, and dense cold plumes sink from the top wall, as shown in
Fig. 1. Comparison results of the Nuave between LES and DNS. Fig. 3(a). At this density inversion parameter, the LSC is formed
188 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193
Table 1
Mesh dependence test at Hm = 0.5.
Ra = 109 Mesh 36,000
Nuave 36.1
Ra = 1011 Mesh 186,000
Nuave 160.4
(a) m=0 (b) m=0.3
(e) m=0 (f) m=0.3
Fig. 3. Isothermal surfaces (a-d) and vortices (e-h) at different Hm at Ra = 109.
by the combination between hot and cold plumes. When the den-
sity inversion parameter slightly increases to Hm = 0.3, the local
maximum density exists inside the container, which results in that
the density gradient near the top wall has the same direction with
the temperature gradient. Therefore, the fluid layer near the top
wall is initially stable. The generation of cold plumes is less near
the top wall, as shown in Fig. 3(b). As a result, the LSC is mainly dri-
ven by the hot plumes. Under the high density inversion parame-
ter, the location of the maximum density point gradually moves
toward the bottom wall, which leads to a significant increase on
the thickness of the initial stable layer. As shown in Fig. 3
(c) and (d), there is almost no eruption of cold plumes from the
top of the container. Hot plumes are released from the bottom
thermal boundary layer and penetrate to the upper stable layer.
The hot plumes lead to the formulation of LSC. With the increase
of density inversion parameter, the suppression effect of the upper
motionless fluid layer on the fluid motion is enhanced. Hot plumes
hardly move to the top wall when Hm = 0.7, as shown in Fig. 3(d).
In order to analyze the flow structure in more detail, the vortic-
ity fields by using Q3D criterion [32,33] are studied. According to
Hunt et al. [34] and Jeong and Hussain [35], Q3D is defined as
1
Q 3D ¼  ðSij Sij  Xij Xij Þ
2 with the increase of density inversion parameter. The penetration
where Sij = (oui/oxj + ouj/oxi)/2 and Xij = (oui/oxj – ouj/oxi)/2 are
respectively the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of velocity gra-
dient tensor rU. The vorticity fields at different density inversion
parameter are shown in Fig. 3(e-h). Obviously, the scale of vortex
90,000 179,000 241,000
38.5 37.7 38.0
375,000 642,000 938,000
165.5 171.6 173.1
(c) m=0.5 (d) m=0.7
(g) m=0.5 (h) m=0.7
grows significantly and the number of vortex decreases near the
top of the container with the increase of density inversion
parameter.
Other prominent effects of the maximum density phenomenon
are the increase of temperature within the bulk region and the
inequality bottom-top temperature gradients in the boundary lay-
ers, which can clearly be seen in Fig. 4(a). At the Oberbeck-
Boussinesq approximate condition, the mean temperature in the
bulk region is (Th + Tc)/2 and the thickness of thermal boundary
layers near the bottom and the top is equal, as observed in Refs.
[36,37]. Fig. 4(a) shows the profiles of the mean temperature
hHiA,s at three density inversion parameters. The temperatures in
the bulk region for all density inversion parameters are higher than
(Th + Tc)/2. The temperature in the bulk region approaches gradu-
ally to the temperature of the bottom wall with the increase of
density inversion parameter. The temperature gradient at the top
boundary layer is always higher than that at the bottom. Further-
more, the temperature gradients at the bottom and top boundary
layers both increase with the increase of density inversion param-
eter. Its increment at the top boundary layer is more pronounced
than that at the bottom. The reason is that the fluid motion in
the upper region slows down. This means that the fluid motion
ð9Þ in the unstable region hard penetrates to the top of the container
depth dp is introduced to describe the penetration degree of the
fluid motion in the container, which approximately equals to the
average distance between the isothermal surfaces with the maxi-
mum density temperature and the bottom wall temperature [38].
 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193 189

1.0
(a) 1.00 (b)
Θm=0.3
0.8 0.98
Θm=0.5
Θm=0.7 0.96
0.6
0.94
Z

dp
0.4 0.92

0.90
0.2
0.88
0.0 0.86
0.0 0.5 1.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
<Θ>A,τ Θm

Fig. 4. Mean temperature profiles for three density inversion parameters (a) and penetration depth as a function of density inversion parameter (b).

65 25
(a) Θm=0.3 (b) Θ m=0.7
55 15
Nu
Nu

45 5
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
τ τ
Fig. 5. Time evolutions of Nusselt number at Hm = 0.3 (a) and 0.7 (b).

(a) Θm=0.3 (b) Θm=0.7

1000 1000

100
PDS(Nu)

100
PDS(Nu)

10 10

1 1
0.01 0.1 1 0 .01 0. 1
F F
Fig. 6. Temporal power spectrums of Nusselt number at Hm = 0.3 (a) and 0.7 (b).

Obviously, the penetration depth dp reduces significantly with the
increase of density inversion parameter, as shown in Fig. 4(b).
Fig. 5 shows the evolutions of Nusselt number at Hm = 0.3 and
0.7. It is worth mentioning that these time-histories of Nusselt
number start from a well-development stage. It is obvious that it
is non-periodic as Rayleigh number is large enough to provide
energy for turbulent flow. The increasing density inversion param-
eter could reduce the amplitude of Nusselt number oscillation.
Fig. 6 presents the temporal density power-spectra (PDS) against
the dimensionless oscillation frequency (F) which is defined as
fs0. These PDSs can also depict the aperiodicity of Nusselt number
oscillation. The spectral distributions are achieved by recording
Nusselt number and then doing a fast Fourier transformation
(FFT). Comparing the results of the FFT at Hm = 0.3 and 0.7, we
can find that the energy level at Hm = 0.3 is much higher than that
at Hm = 0.7. Moreover, the size of the frequency is wider at
Hm = 0.3 than that at Hm = 0.7, which again demonstrates the
presence of smaller scale vortices at Hm = 0.3.
3.2. Effect of Rayleigh number
Heslot et al. [7] experimentally studied Rayleigh-Bénard con-
vection in gaseous helium with Rayleigh number up to 1011. They
observed three states with the increase of Rayleigh number,
including a chaotic state, a soft turbulence state and then a hard
turbulence state. This section is devoted to studying the turbulence
states of cold water near its maximum density at Hm = 0.3.
Fig. 7 shows the evolutions of Nusselt numbers at Ra = 107 and
5
109. The heat transfer ability and the turbulent multi-scale
effect are stronger at Ra = 5
109 than those at Ra = 107. Fig. 8
shows the histograms of Nusselt number and fitting distributions
at Ra = 107 and 5
109. Obviously, the histogram behaves a Gaus-
sian distribution at Ra = 107, and a more exponential character at
Ra = 5
109. According to the definitions of soft and hard turbulent
flow by Heslot et al. [7], the convection at Ra = 107 and Ra = 5
109
should be divided into the soft turbulence state and the hard tur-
bulence state, respectively.
190 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193

20 95
(a) Ra=107 (b) Ra=5×109
10 85

Nu
Nu
0 75
0 200 400 600 0 200 400 600
τ τ
Fig. 7. Time evolutions of Nusselt numbers at Ra = 107 (a) and 5
109 (b).

120
(a) Ra=107 30 (b) Ra=5×109

80 20

N
N

40 10

0 0

11 12 13 14 15 80 85 90
Nu Nu

Fig. 8. The histograms of Nusselt number at Ra = 107 (a) and 5
109 (b).

(a) Ra=106 (b) Ra=107 (c) Ra=5×108 (d) Ra=5×109

(e) Ra=106 (f) Ra=107 (g) Ra=5×108 (h) Ra=5×109

Fig. 9. Isothermal surfaces (a-d) and vortices (e-h) for Ra from 106 to 5
109 at Hm = 0.3.

The isothermal surfaces shown in Fig. 9(a-d) are applied to visu-
alize the three-dimensional flow for different Rayleigh numbers.
The contour values in Fig. 9(a-d) are also from 0.1 to 0.9 with step
of 0.1. Obviously, they change dramatically with the increase of
Rayleigh number. In the soft turbulence state, the fluid rises on
the one side and sinks on the other side at Ra = 106, which leads
to the corresponding deformation of the isothermal surfaces. When
Rayleigh number is increased to 107, this deformation becomes
intense. In the hard turbulence state, the plume which is a local
thermal structure with the much higher or lower temperature than
that of the background begins to be visible in the container, as
shown in Fig. 9(c) and (d). In this case, the convection is dominated
by a large scale circulation which moves along the sidewall.
The effect of Rayleigh number on flow characteristics can be
further explained by the vorticity fields, as shown in Fig. 9(e-h).
In the region of soft turbulence state, the vortex behaves long-
strip-shaped or planar-shaped. When the flow transits to the hard
turbulence state, the shape of vortex changes to the small-
 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193 191

1.0 1.00
(a) (b)
6
0.8 Ra=10
Ra=10
8 0.98
10
Ra=10
0.6
0.96
Z

dp
0.4
soft turbulence hard turbulence
0.94
0.2

0.0 0.92 6
0.0 0.5 1.0 10 10
7
10
8
10
9
10
10

<Θ>A,τ Ra
Fig. 10. Mean temperature profiles at different Rayleigh number (a) and penetration depth as a function of Rayleigh number (b).

banding-shaped or the granule-shaped, and the distribution of the

vortex is closer to the sidewall. In addition, some small granule-
shaped vortices appear in the middle of the cylindrical container.
The flow structures showed by the vorticity fields agree well with
the coherence structures presented by the isothermal surfaces.
The mean temperature profile and the penetration depth dp can
illustrate distinct characteristics for the different turbulence states,
as shown in Fig. 10. It can be found from the mean temperature
profile hHiA,s that the temperature gradients in the bottom and
top boundary layers both decrease with the increase of Rayleigh
number. The temperature difference in the bulk region is not nota-
ble between Ra = 106 and 108, where the convection belongs to the
soft turbulence state. In the hard turbulence state, for example
Ra = 1010, the temperature in the bulk region becomes much closer
to (Th + Tc)/2, which is the bulk temperature for common fluids. It
indicates that the effect of the maximum density phenomenon is
on the wane with the increase of Rayleigh number. Fig. 10(b)
shows the variation of the penetration depth dp with Rayleigh
number. The different turbulence states could be diagnosed by
the different slops of the dp  Ra relation in the penetrative
Rayleigh-Bénard convection. As shown in Fig. 10(b), the transition
from the soft to the hard turbulence states occurs at a transient
Rayleigh number around RaT = 2
108. The penetration depth dp
rises sharply in the soft turbulence state (Ra = 106–2
108), this
is because the turbulent flow becomes more intensive with the
increase of Rayleigh number, and the bottom unstable fluid layer
is able to drive more fluid to flow to the top stable fluid layer. In
the hard turbulence state (Ra = 2
108–1010), the penetration
depth dp shows weak sensitivity to Rayleigh number as the flow
is fully developed.

3.3. Scaling relationship between Nuave and Ra

The time average heat transfer rate on the bottom wall is

described by the average Nusselt number Nuave. Many studies on
Rayleigh-Bénard convection of common fluids have demonstrated
that a power law scaling exits between average Nusselt number Fig. 11. The scaling relationship between Nuave and Ra for Hm from 0 to 0.7 (a) and
Nuave and Rayleigh number Ra [4], that is relationship between Nuave and Hm at three different Rayleigh numbers (b).

Nuave ¼ C
Rab ð10Þ

This power law relationship is also suitable for the penetrative
Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold water. Fig. 11(a) shows a log-
log plot of Nuave as a function of Ra at different density inversion
parameters. A single scaling relation that covers soft and hard tur-
bulence states [9] is developed for each density inversion parame-
ter. The exponent b does not change obviously when the
convection state transits from soft turbulence to hard turbulence.
However, different scalings were used to distinguish soft and hard
convection states [8,10]. The exponent b ranges from 0.31 to 0.33
for different density inversion parameters, which agree with the
experimental results in high Rayleigh number [39]. The exponent
192 X.-J. Huang et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 116 (2018) 185–193
Table 2
Variation of b with density inversion parameter Hm.
Hm 0 0.3 0.5
b 0.33 0.32 0.32
160
120
+17%
Nuave
fit
80
-17%
40
0
0 40 80 120 160
cal
Nuave
Fig. 12. Comparison of Nuave between fitting and calculation values.
b slightly decreases with the increase of density inversion param-
eter, as shown in Table 2.
Fig. 11(b) shows the variation of average Nusselt number with
density inversion parameter at three different Rayleigh numbers.
The average Nusselt number almost decreases linearly with the
increase of density inversion parameter. It reveals that the prefac-
tor C seems to be a function of density inversion parameter. As a
result, the following relationship Nuave (Ra, Hm) can be obtained
by fitting curves
Nuave ¼ ð0:0904Hm þ 0:0958ÞRa0:320:01
The simulation result and the data obtained from the scaling
relationship have a very high fitting precision, as shown in
Fig. 12. The deviations between them are within ±17%.
4. Conclusions
Large Eddy Simulation with WALE sub-gird model was per-
formed for Rayleigh-Bénard convection of cold water with the
effects of the maximum density. Based on the simulation results,
the following conclusions can be drawn.
(1) At small density inversion parameter, the LSC is driven by
hot and cold plumes. With the increase of density inversion
parameter, the act of cold plumes on the LSC gradually
diminishes until actually disappears. The temperature in
the bulk region for all density inversion parameters are
higher than that within common fluids. There is an increase
of temperature in the bulk region and the decrease of the
penetration depth with the increase of density inversion
parameter.
(2) Two flow states are observed with the increase of Rayleigh
number, which are the soft turbulence state and the hard
turbulence state. In the soft turbulence state, the histogram
of Nusselt number has a Gaussian distribution. With the
increase of Rayleigh number, the deformation of isothermal
surfaces becomes intense, the scale of vorticity decreases,
and the penetration depth increases rapidly. In the hard tur-
bulence state, the histogram of Nusselt number fits more
exponential distribution. With the increase of Rayleigh num-
ber, plumes become visible in this state, and the shape of
vortex transits to small-banding-shaped or granule-shaped.
The penetration depth shows weak sensitivity to Rayleigh
number.
0.7 (3) The scaling relationship for the average Nusselt number
0.31 with Rayleigh number and density inversion parameter is
proposed. The numerical results coincide well with those
predicted by this correlation.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Grant No. 51376199).
Conflict of interest
No.
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