Boundary layers in rotating weakly turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection

Boundary layers in rotating weakly turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection

Richard J. A. M. Stevens, Herman J. H. Clercx, and Detlef Lohse Department of Science and Technology and J. M. Burgers Center for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands and Department of Physics and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, Eindh...

Structure of thermal boundary layers in turbulent RayleighBnard convection

We report high-resolution local-temperature measurements in the upper boundary layer of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard (RB) convection with variable Rayleigh number Ra and aspect ratio Γ . The primary purpose of the work is to create a comprehensive data set of temperature profiles against which various phenomenological theories and numerical simulations can be tested. We performed two series of mea...

Sheared boundary layers in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

Turbulent convection with “disconnected” top and bottom boundary layers

– We have done an experimental study of turbulent thermal convection in water using a cell with a baffle placed at its mid-height, over a range of Ra that spans from 2 × 10 to 2× 10. It was found that in this case the large-scale circulation is not able to advect heat between the top and bottom plates and heat has to be carried across the baffle mainly by thermal plumes. Furthermore, the measur...

Vortex statistics in turbulent rotating convection.

The vortices emerging in rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in water at Rayleigh number Ra=6.0×10{8} are investigated using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry and by direct numerical simulation. The so-called Q criterion is used to detect the vortices from velocity fields. This criterion allows distinguishing vorticity- and strain-dominated regions in the flow by decomposing the...