# Penetration of a cooling convective layer into a stably-stratified composition gradient: Entrainment at low Prandtl number

@article{Fuentes2020PenetrationOA,
title={Penetration of a cooling convective layer into a stably-stratified composition gradient: Entrainment at low Prandtl number},
author={J. Rodrigo Fuentes and Andrew Cumming},
journal={arXiv: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics},
year={2020}
}
• Published 8 July 2020
• Physics, Materials Science
• arXiv: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
We study the formation and evolution of a convective layer when a stably-stratified fluid with a composition gradient is cooled from above. We perform a series of 2D simulations using the Bousinessq approximation with Prandtl number ranging from Pr = 0.1 to 7, extending previous work on salty water to low Pr. We show that the evolution of the convection zone is well-described by an entrainment prescription in which a fixed fraction of the kinetic energy of convective motions is used to mix… Expand
1 Citations

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