Buoyant boundary layer flows - An analogy to the Ekman spiral

Numerical solutions are obtained for an exemplary heat-up problem, and an analysis is conducted of detailed flow data to examine the structure of the buoyant sidewall boundary layer. The buoyant layer spiral is constructed by plotting the scaled vertical velocity W and the scaled temperature theta as functions of the depth of the layer. The considered spiral is analogous to the Ekman spiral in rotating fluids. The thickness of the buoyant layer is substantially unaffected by time and vertical level. The conducted analysis is based on the employment of a finite-difference numerical model.