Numerical study of thermal convection induced by centrifugal buoyancy in a rotating cylindrical annulus

Thermal convection in a cylindrical annulus with solid-body rotation and subject to an inward radial heating is investigated by the linear stability analysis and direct numerical simulation using the periodic boundary conditions. The Archimedean buoyancy is neglected in order to investigate the properties of thermal convection induced solely by the centrifugal buoyancy. The Coriolis buoyancy, which is usually neglected in similar studies, is included in the flow equations. The critical state occurs in the form of columnar vortices drifting in the retrograde direction. The critical parameters of these convective columnar vortices are determined for different values of the radius ratio and the Prandtl number (Pr). Instantaneous flow and temperature fields are computed for Pr=1 in order to investigate higher instability modes and chaotic states. The kinetic energy and the coefficient of heat transfer by columnar vortices are evaluated for a large range of values of the Rayleigh number.