Phase IV: Continued Development of the Core Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at UCLA

这一奖项将允许加州大学洛杉矶分校的行星核心动力学研究小组开展基础实验室研究，弥合目前地球发电机的计算机模型和先进的地球物理湍流理论模型之间存在的重要差距。该小组独特的、定制设计和建造的实验室设备使他们能够表征存在于行星核心环境中的对流。使用水和液态镓作为工作液，该团队将研究比目前行星发电机行为模拟所能获得的更极端的参数。因此，这项研究将提供必要的实验室数据，以基准和验证先进的岩心流动理论，并建立液态金属中湍流行星发电机发电的预测模型。这些结果将有助于地核和其他行星发电机的建模，以及流体湍流、太阳和恒星对流带和发电机的建模，以及地球气候和行星大气的建模。此外，这项工作将使两个不同的地球物理界能够整合他们的建模方法，并最终产生更健壮和在地球物理上适用的模拟。在执行这些任务时，该项目将为三名研究生、一名本科生和一名研究人员提供高级实验室实验、数值和理论建模方面的培训。这笔资金还使PI团队能够扩大他们独特的地球物理流体动力学教育片库，向公众免费提供(例如，https://www.youtube.com/user/spinlabucla).With)，加州大学洛杉矶分校旋涡实验室的研究人员将在这个奖项中进行一系列水中快速旋转的对流实验，以阐明行星核心中发生的湍流对流的原理。这些实验将使用加州大学洛杉矶分校PI实验室中由NSF资助的新NoMag设备进行，该设备允许研究人员成像并量化Ekman数低至3x10^-8的对流速度、涡度和螺旋度场。在他们由NSF资助的ROMAG装置中，使用镓作为工作流体，该团队将继续进行旋转磁对流实验，并通过紧密耦合的数值模拟进行增强。这些Romag实验提供的新数据将使研究人员能够量化和诊断在模拟的地核流体块(Elsasser数~1；Ekman数5 x 10^-8)中发生的复杂磁流体动力学。这项工作将提供必要的基本实验室数据，以基准和验证岩心流动的先进数值和理论模型，并建立液态金属中湍流行星发电机发电的预测模型。

This award will allow the planetary core dynamics research group at UCLA to carry out fundamental laboratory research that bridges important gaps that exist between current computer models of the geodynamo and advanced theoretical models of geophysical turbulence. The group's unique, custom-designed and -built laboratory devices allow them to characterize the convective flows that exist in planetary core settings. Using water and liquid gallium as the working fluids, the team will investigate more extreme parameters than are attainable in current simulations of planetary dynamo action. Thus, this research will provide the essential laboratory data necessary to benchmark and validate advanced theories of core flow and to build predictive models of turbulent planetary dynamo generation in liquid metals. These results will be useful to modelers of Earth's core and other planetary dynamos, as well as modelers of fluid turbulence, solar and stellar convection zones and dynamos, and modelers of Earth's climate and planetary atmospheres. Furthermore, this work will enable two disparate geophysical communities to integrate their modeling approaches, and ultimately, generate more robust and geophysically applicable simulations. In carrying out these tasks, this project will provide training in advanced laboratory experimentation, numerical and theoretical modeling to three graduate students, one undergraduate and one researcher. This funding also allows the PI team to expand their unique library of educational films about geophysical fluid dynamics that is freely accessible to the public (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/user/spinlabucla).With this award, UCLA SpinLab researchers will carry out a series of rapidly rotating convection experiments in water that will elucidate principles about turbulent convective flows occurring in planetary cores. These experiments will be conducted using the new NSF-funded NoMag device that exists in the PI's lab at UCLA, and that allows the investigators to image and quantify the convective velocity, vorticity and helicity fields at Ekman numbers as low as 3 x 10^-8. Using gallium as the working fluid in their NSF-funded RoMag device, the team will continue to conduct rotating magnetoconvection experiments, enhanced by closely- coupled numerical simulations. The novel data these RoMag experiments provide will allow the researchers to quantify and diagnose the complex magnetohyrdrodynamics occuring in a simulated parcel of Earth's core fluid (Elsasser number ~ 1; Ekman numbers 5 x 10^-8). This work will provide fundamental laboratory data necessary to benchmark and validate advanced numerical and theoretical models of core flow and to build predictive models of turbulent planetary dynamo generation in liquid metals.