Analytical and Numerical Studies of Natural Convection along Doubly Infinite Vertical Plates in Stratified Fluids

Results are presented from a series of analytical and numerical studies of buoyantly driven flows along heated vertical surfaces immersed in stably stratified fluids. Flows of the studied type are broadly represented in engineering and geophysical applications. First, the classical problem of one-dimensional natural convection flow along a heated wall is revisited for the case of a stably stratified ambient fluid. The study then focuses on laminar natural convection in a viscous stably stratified fluid resulting from temporally periodic variations in the wall surface temperature. Finally, scaling relationships are proposed for the turbulent convection flow along a heated wall and verified based on results of direct numerical simulations.