Large eddy simulation of a two-dimensional thermal

Large eddy simulation is carried out for the motion of a two-dimensional thermal, where various aspects of a thermal are reproduced realistically. It is found that the splitting of a thermal always occurs as it rises to a certain distance. At the beginning the velocity, length and buoyancy of a rising thermal are found to follow the prediction from dimensional analysis based on the total amount of released buoyancy per unit length and the traveled distance. However, the motion is found to follow the vortex pair theory after the splitting.