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The onset of thermal convection in a rapidly rotating spherical shell is studied by linear stability analysis based on the fully compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Compressibility is quantified by the number of density scale heights N-rho, which measures the intensity of density stratification of the motionless, polytropic base state. The nearly adiabatic flow with polytropic index n = 1.499 < na = 1.5 is considered, where na is the adiabatic polytropic index. By investigating the stability of the base state with respect to the disturbance of specified wavenumber, the instability process is found to be sensitive to the Prandtl number Pr and to N-rho. For large Pr and small N-rho, the quasi-geostrophic columnar mode loses stability first; while for relatively small Pr a new quasi-geostrophic compressible mode is identified, which becomes unstable first under strong density stratification. The inertial mode can also occur first for relatively small Pr and a certain intensity of density stratification in the parameter range considered. Although the Rayleigh numbers Ra for the onsets of the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode and columnar mode are different by several orders of magnitude, we find that they follow very similar scaling laws with the Taylor number. The critical Ra for convection onset is found to be always positive, in contrast with previous results based on the widely used anelastic model that convection can occur at negative Ra. By evaluating the relative magnitude of the time derivative of density perturbation in the continuity equation, we show that the anelastic approximation in the present system cannot be applied in the small-Ra and large-N-rho regime.

Based on the fully compressible Navier-Stokes equations, the linear stability of thermal convection in rapidly rotating spherical shells of various radius ratios eta is studied for a wide range of Taylor number Ta, Prandtl number Pr and the number of density scale height N-rho. Besides the classical inertial mode and columnar mode, which are widely studied by the Boussinesq approximation and anelastic approximation, the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode is also identified in a wide range of N-rho and Pr for all eta considered, and this mode mainly occurs in the convection with relatively small Pr and large N.. The instability processes are classified into five categories. In general, for the specified wavenumber m, the parameter space (Pr, N-rho) of the fifth category, in which the base state loses stability via the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode and remains unstable, shrinks as eta increases. The asymptotic scaling behaviours of the critical Rayleigh numbers Ra-c and corresponding wavenumbers m(c) to Ta are found at different eta for the same instability mode. As eta increases, the flow stability is strengthened. Furthermore, the linearized perturbation equations and Reynolds-Orr equation are employed to quantitatively analyse the mechanical mechanisms and flow instability mechanisms of different modes. In the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode, the time-derivative term of disturbance density in the continuity equation and the diffusion term of disturbance temperature in the energy equation are found to be critical, while in the columnar and inertial modes, they can generally be ignored. Because the time-derivative term of the disturbance density in the continuity equation cannot be ignored, the anelastic approximation fails to capture the instability mode in the small-Pr and large-N-rho system, where convection onset is dominated by the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode. However, all the modes are primarily governed by the balance between the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient, based on the momentum equation. Physically, the most important difference between the quasi-geostrophic compressible mode and the columnar mode is the role played by the disturbance pressure. The disturbance pressure performs negative work for the former mode, which appears to stabilize the flow, while it destabilizes the flow for the latter mode. As eta increases, in the former mode the relative work performed by the disturbance pressure increases and in the latter mode decreases.

We successfully perform the three-dimensional tracking in a turbulent fluid flow of small axisymmetrical particles that are neutrally-buoyant and bottom-heavy, i.e., they have a non-homogeneous mass distribution along their symmetry axis. We experimentally show how a tiny mass inhomogeneity can affect the particle orientation along the preferred vertical direction and modify its tumbling rate. The experiment is complemented by a series of simulations based on realistic Navier-Stokes turbulence and on a point-like particle model that is capable to explore the full range of parameter space characterized by the gravitational torque stability number and by the particle aspect ratio. We propose a theoretical perturbative prediction valid in the high bottom-heaviness regime that agrees well with the observed preferential orientation and tumbling rate of the particles. We also show that the heavy-tail shape of the probability distribution function of the tumbling rate is weakly affected by the bottom-heaviness of the particles.

We analyze the power spectra and structure functions (SFs) of the temperature and radial velocity fields, calculated in the radial and azimuthal directions, in annular centrifugal Rayleigh–Bénard convection (ACRBC) for Rayleigh number Ra ∈[108,1011], Prandtl number Pr = 10.7, and inverse Rossby number Ro−1=16 using the spatial data obtained by quasi-two-dimensional direct numerical simulation. Bolgiano and Obukhov-like (BO59-like) scalings for the energy spectrum in both the azimuthal and radial directions and thermal spectrum in the azimuthal direction are observed. The range of BO59-like scaling becomes wider as Ra increases. At Ra=1011, it is found that BO59-like scaling Eu(kr)∼kr−11/5 spans nearly two decades for the energy spectrum calculated in the radial direction. Power-law fittings in the range larger than the Bolgiano scales, the scaling exponents of transverse and longitudinal velocity SFs vs the order coincide with the theoretical prediction of BO59 scaling ζ u p =3p/5 basically. The second-order temperature SFs exhibit a gradual transition from the Obukhov–Corrsin behavior at scales smaller than the Bolgiano scales to the BO59 behavior at scales larger than the Bolgiano scales. The slopes from the third to sixth-order temperature SFs are similar, which is similar to classical Rayleigh–Bénard convection and Rayleigh–Taylor turbulence. The probability density functions (p.d.f.) of temperature fluctuations δT/σT reveal the cold plumes are strong and the p.d.f. in different regions at high Ra are similar. The stronger turbulent-mixing and larger centrifugal buoyancy in ACRBC may result in the BO59-like scaling.