Centrifugal hypergravitational scaling experiments of fluid convection with evaluation and correction of Coriolis effect.

This article focuses on improving the similarity criteria in scaled physical modeling of gravity-dominated fluid convection by using hypergravity generated in a centrifuge. It demonstrates that by increasing gravitational acceleration to N³ times Earth's gravity (where N is the geometric scaling factor), both the Reynolds and Froude numbers of a scaled model can simultaneously match those of the prototype, overcoming a longstanding conflict in similarity scaling. Water-brine buoyant jet experiments under hypergravity conditions validate this approach, showing enhanced similarity in flow behavior compared to normal gravity models, though corrections for Coriolis effects inherent to rotating systems are necessary and addressed through numerical simulations. The study concludes that hypergravity modeling offers a promising method for more accurate laboratory-scale investigations of convective fluid flows influenced by gravity, with potential applications extending to multiphase flows and surface tension phenomena.