Density fluctuations in strongly stratified two-dimensional turbulence

Phys Rev Lett. 2005 May 6;94(17):174503. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.174503. Epub 2005 May 4.

Abstract

We present a study of density fluctuations in two-dimensional soap-film convection. When the temperature difference (DeltaT) imposed vertically along the film is smaller than a critical value (DeltaT(C) approximately 48 K), the convective motion is in a strongly stratified state and the frequency power spectrum of density fluctuations shows a Bolgiano-like scaling f(-7/5) in the buoyancy subrange. When DeltaT>DeltaT(C), the fluid motion crosses over to a strongly mixed state characterized by the emergence of a large-scale circulation. The density power spectrum in this state has a passive-scalar-like scaling f(-1.0).