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Scaling laws of strong convective thermals: comparison with experimental data

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Abstract

New scaling laws for the evolution of strong convective buoyant thermals are presented. These strong thermals can be formed by rapid energy release in the environment (e.g., explosion, volcano eruption). The new scaling laws are the power-law relations between the elevation and radius of the thermal and the time since its release. It is shown that the exponents of these power-laws are determined by the density contrast (or total energy) associated with the thermal. At the limit of a weak thermal our model is in agreement with the celebrated work of Batchelor, Morton and Turner. Experimental data from literature are presented to support our findings.

Article Highlights

  • Variety of new scaling laws for buoyant thermals valid outside the Boussinesq approximation

  • Validation of the new scaling laws with experimental data

  • Energy based criterion for observation of different scaling laws.

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All data are available on request from the authors.

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Code is available on request from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr I.R.MacGillivray for useful discussions.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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  1. Defence Science and Technology Group, Fishermans Bend, VIC, 3207, Australia

    Martin Kocan & Alex Skvortsov

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  1. Martin Kocan
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  2. Alex Skvortsov
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Correspondence to Martin Kocan.

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Kocan, M., Skvortsov, A. Scaling laws of strong convective thermals: comparison with experimental data. Environ Fluid Mech 22, 245–257 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-022-09836-7

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