Basics of lava-lamp convection

Balázs Gyüre and Imre M. Jánosi
Phys. Rev. E 80, 046307 – Published 8 October 2009

Abstract

Laboratory experiments are reported in an immiscible two-fluid system, where thermal convection is initiated by heating at the bottom and cooling at the top. The lava-lamp regime is characterized by a robust periodic exchange process where warm blobs rise from the bottom, attach to the top surface for a while, then cold blobs sink down again. Immiscibility allows to reach real steady (dynamical equilibrium) states which can be sustained for several days. Two modes of lava-lamp convection could be identified by recording and evaluating temperature time series at the bottom and at the top of the container: a “slow” mode is determined by an effective heat transport speed at a given temperature gradient, while a second mode of constant periodicity is viscosity limited. Contrasting of laboratory and geophysical observations yields the conclusion that the frequently suggested lava-lamp analogy fails for the accepted models of mantle convection.

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  • Received 9 April 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.046307

©2009 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Balázs Gyüre1 and Imre M. Jánosi1,2

  • 1von Kármán Laboratory of Environmental Flows, Loránd Eötvös University, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
  • 2Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, University of Minnesota, 400 Lind Hall, 207 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA

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Vol. 80, Iss. 4 — October 2009

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