Flow Reversal in Low-Prandtl-Number Convection via Lateral Confinement
Abstract
A prevailing consensus holds that flow reversals of the large-scale circulation (LSC) are suppressed in low-Prandtl-number (Pr) fluids, as high thermal diffusivity rapidly dissipates the energy required to fuel the corner-vortex mechanisms. Here, we report Direct Numerical Simulations of liquid metal convection (Pr=0.029) revealing that strong lateral confinement defies this consensus, enabling sustained LSC reversals. We show that confinement triggers a ``plume condensation" transition, reorganizing chaotic thermal plumes into highly coherent, quasi-linear structures. A thermal dissipation analysis demonstrates that this coherence drastically reduces heat loss during transport, allowing plumes to deliver sufficient buoyancy to corner vortices to drive reversals. We map a distinct ``island of reversal" in the parameter space, establishing lateral confinement as a control parameter capable of overcoming the stabilizing effects of high thermal diffusivity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.21984,
title = {Flow Reversal in Low-Prandtl-Number Convection via Lateral Confinement},
author = {Zhi-Han Wu and Long Chen and Yan-Wu Cao and Liang Xue and Ming-Zhu Ai and Juan-Cheng Yang and Ming-Jiu Ni},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.21984},
year = {2026}
}