Role of thermal plumes on particle dispersion in a turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard cell

Abstract

A high resolution numerical technique coupled with Lagrangian particle tracking is employed to investigate the behaviour of inertial particles in a periodic turbulent Rayleigh-Bènard convection cell. In particular, we focus on the relation between thermal structures and particle re-suspension. Different particle Stokes and Froude numbers are considered to evaluate the influence of inertia and gravity on particle clustering and consequently, on the dispersion of particles in the domain. Statistics on particle and fluid velocity and temperature fields are also presented.