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Turbulent convection at high Rayleigh numbers and aspect ratio 4

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2006

J. J. NIEMELA
Affiliation:
The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy
K. R. SREENIVASAN
Affiliation:
The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy
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Abstract

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We report measurements of the Nusselt number, $\hbox{\it Nu}$, in turbulent thermal convection in a cylindrical container of aspect ratio 4. The highest Rayleigh number achieved was $\hbox{\it Ra} \,{=}\, 2 \,{\times}\, 10^{13}$. Except for the last half a decade or so of $\hbox{\it Ra}$, experimental conditions obey the Boussinesq approximation accurately. For these conditions, the data show that the $\log\hbox{\it Nu}$$\log\hbox{\it Ra}$ slope saturates at a value close to 1/3, as observed previously by us in experiments with smaller aspect ratios. The increasing slope over the last half a decade of $\hbox{\it Ra}$ is inconclusive because the corresponding conditions are non-Boussinesq. Finally, we report a modified scaling relation between the plume advection frequency and ${\hbox{\it Ra}}$ that collapses data for different aspect ratios.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press