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Transition to the Ultimate State of Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Xiaozhou He, Denis Funfschilling, Holger Nobach, Eberhard Bodenschatz, and Guenter Ahlers
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 024502 – Published 9 January 2012
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Abstract

Measurements of the Nusselt number Nu and of a Reynolds number Reeff for Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) over the Rayleigh-number range 1012Ra1015 and for Prandtl numbers Pr near 0.8 are presented. The aspect ratio ΓD/L of a cylindrical sample was 0.50. For Ra1013 the data yielded NuRaγeff with γeff0.31 and ReeffRaζeff with ζeff0.43, consistent with classical turbulent RBC. After a transition region for 1013Ra5×1014, where multistability occurred, we found γeff0.38 and ζeff=ζ0.50, in agreement with the results of Grossmann and Lohse for the large-Ra asymptotic state with turbulent boundary layers which was first predicted by Kraichnan.

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  • Received 7 September 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.024502

© 2012 American Physical Society

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The Twins of Turbulence Research

Published 9 January 2012

Two new experiments on fluid turbulence have attained conditions needed to establish asymptotic scalings for turbulent transports of heat and angular momentum.

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Authors & Affiliations

Xiaozhou He1, Denis Funfschilling2, Holger Nobach1, Eberhard Bodenschatz1,3,4, and Guenter Ahlers5

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
  • 2LRGP CNRS - GROUPE ENSIC, BP 451, 54001 Nancy Cedex, France
  • 3Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, University of Göttingen, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
  • 4Laboratory of Atomic and Solid-State Physics and Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853
  • 5Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA

Comments & Replies

Absence of Evidence for the Ultimate State of Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Charles R. Doering
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 229401 (2020)

He et al. Reply:

Xiaozhou He, Denis Funfschilling, Holger Nobach, Eberhard Bodenschatz, and Guenter Ahlers
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 229402 (2020)

See Also

Ultimate Turbulent Taylor-Couette Flow

Sander G. Huisman, Dennis P. M. van Gils, Siegfried Grossmann, Chao Sun, and Detlef Lohse
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 024501 (2012)

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Vol. 108, Iss. 2 — 13 January 2012

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