Direct numerical simulation of turbulence and microphysics in the Pi Chamber

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-4-2022

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

The Pi Chamber is a cloud chamber at Michigan Technological University that utilizes moist turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard flow between two temperature-controlled, saturated plates to create cloud conditions in a controlled laboratory setting. This experimental apparatus has been the source of numerous scientific studies but also offers an advantageous platform with which to test numerical modeling approaches. In this study, the primary goal is to use direct numerical simulation (DNS) with Lagrangian aerosol/droplet microphysics to recreate, as realistically as possible, the conditions inside the Pi Chamber. The biggest discrepancies between the DNS and laboratory setups are the Rayleigh number (Ra=7.9×106 in the DNS) and the use of periodic lateral boundary conditions. Nonetheless, numerical experiments are conducted for two published Pi Chamber cases: steady aerosol injection and the resulting statistically steady-state cloud and transient conditions when aerosol injection is shut off. Generally speaking, the DNS is able to capture many of the salient features observed in the Pi Chamber experiments, both qualitatively and quantitatively, including microphysical details and influences on the fluctuating ambient saturation in the chamber. From the DNS, Lagrangian statistics are interrogated which are otherwise inaccessible from the experimental view. In particular, the supersaturation fluctuations seen by droplets are observed to deviate from a Gaussian distribution - a common assumption in stochastic modeling - and the probability distribution of droplet lifetime does not adhere to the expected behavior assuming solid particles settling in a quiescent medium.

Publication Title

Physical Review Fluids

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