Abstract
We report results for the temperature profiles of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) in the interior of a cylindrical sample of aspect ratio ( and are the diameter and height, respectively). Both in the classical and in the ultimate state of RBC we find that the temperature varies as , where is the distance from the bottom or top plate. In the classical state, the coefficient decreases in the radial direction as the distance from the side wall increases. For the ultimate state, the radial dependence of has not yet been determined. These findings are based on experimental measurements over the Rayleigh-number range for a Prandtl number and on direct numerical simulation at , , and , all for .
- Received 21 April 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.114501
© 2012 American Physical Society