The patterns of high-degree thermal free convection and its features in a spherical shell  

作　　者：朱涛 冯锐 

机构地区：[1]Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration

出　　处：《Acta Seismologica Sinica(English Edition)》2005年第1期12-26,共15页

基　　金：National Natural Science Foundation of China (49834020).

摘　　要：A high-degree (degree l = 6 and order m = 0, 1, 2, [midline ellipsis] , l. High-order model for short) and steady thermal free convective motion of an infinite Prandtl number and Boussinesq fluid in a spherical shell is calculated by a Galerkin method. Convection is driven by an imposed temperature drop across top rigid and bottom stress-free isothermal boundaries only heated from below of the shell. In this paper, the scalar poloidal and fluctuating temperature fields are expanded into associated Legendre polynomials with degree l = 6 and order m = 0, 1, 2, [midline ellipsis] , l. Compared with zero-order model (degree l = 6 and order m = 0), from which 2-D longitudinal (r-θ) profiles can be obtained, high-order model can provide a series of southerly (r-θ), easterly (r-φ) and radial (θ-φ) velocity profiles, which probably reveal more detail features of mass motion in the mantle. It is found that Rayleigh number has great effects on the patterns and velocities of thermal free convection and controls the relative ratio of hot and cold plume in the shell. Probably, the present results mainly reveal the mass motion in the lower mantle, while the striking differences of convection patterns from velocities at different positions have important geodynamical significances.A high-degree (degree l = 6 and order m = 0, 1, 2, [midline ellipsis] , l. High-order model for short) and steady thermal free convective motion of an infinite Prandtl number and Boussinesq fluid in a spherical shell is calculated by a Galerkin method. Convection is driven by an imposed temperature drop across top rigid and bottom stress-free isothermal boundaries only heated from below of the shell. In this paper, the scalar poloidal and fluctuating temperature fields are expanded into associated Legendre polynomials with degree l = 6 and order m = 0, 1, 2, [midline ellipsis] , l. Compared with zero-order model (degree l = 6 and order m = 0), from which 2-D longitudinal (r-θ) profiles can be obtained, high-order model can provide a series of southerly (r-θ), easterly (r-φ) and radial (θ-φ) velocity profiles, which probably reveal more detail features of mass motion in the mantle. It is found that Rayleigh number has great effects on the patterns and velocities of thermal free convection and controls the relative ratio of hot and cold plume in the shell. Probably, the present results mainly reveal the mass motion in the lower mantle, while the striking differences of convection patterns from velocities at different positions have important geodynamical significances.

关 键 词：nonlinear thermal free convection constant viscosity Galerkin method 

分 类 号：P314.2[天文地球—固体地球物理学]