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We present spatially and temporally resolved velocity and acceleration measurements of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC) in the entire fluid sample of square horizontal cross section with length L = 320 mm and height H = 20 mm, resulting in an aspect ratio of Γ = H / L = 16 . The working fluid was water with a Prandtl number of Pr=7 and the Rayleigh number was set to Ra = 1.1 × 10 6 . In order to minimize surface reflections, we used fluorescent polyethylene microspheres as tracer particles that were imaged at a rate of 19 Hz by six cameras. From the images, the particle positions, velocities, and accelerations were determined via the 'Shake-The-Box' (STB) Lagrangian particle tracking algorithm. With this approach, we could simultaneously track more than 300,000 particles and hence study the resulting turbulent structures in the Eulerian and Lagrangian frames while resolving the smallest spatial and temporal scales of the flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By utilizing diffusion maps embedding and transition matrix analysis we investigate sparse temperature measurement time-series data from Rayleigh–Bénard convection experiments in a cylindrical container of aspect ratio between its diameter (D) and height (L). We consider the two cases of a cylinder at rest and rotating around its cylinder axis. We find that the relative amplitude of the large-scale circulation (LSC) and its orientation inside the container at different points in time are associated to prominent geometric features in the embedding space spanned by the two dominant diffusion-maps eigenvectors. From this two-dimensional embedding we can measure azimuthal drift and diffusion rates, as well as coherence times of the LSC. In addition, we can distinguish from the data clearly the single roll state (SRS), when a single roll extends through the whole cell, from the double roll state (DRS), when two counter-rotating rolls are on top of each other. Based on this embedding we also build a transition matrix (a discrete transfer operator), whose eigenvectors and eigenvalues reveal typical time scales for the stability of the SRS and DRS as well as for the azimuthal drift velocity of the flow structures inside the cylinder. Thus, the combination of nonlinear dimension reduction and dynamical systems tools enables to gain insight into turbulent flows without relying on model assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on Leidenfrost patterns and boiling with compressed sulfur hexafluoride ( SF 6 ). The experiments were carried out in a large aspect ratio Rayleigh–Bénard convection cell, where the distance between the horizontal plates is comparable with the capillary length of the working fluid. Pressures and temperatures were chosen such that the bottom plate was above and the top plate was below the liquid–vapor transition temperature of SF 6 . As a result, SF 6 vapor condenses at the top plate and forms drops that grow in size. Leidenfrost patterns are formed as the drops do not fall but levitate by the vapor released in the gap between the hot bottom plate and the colder drops. When the size of these drops became too large, one or more vapor bubbles—chimneys—form inside them. We determine the critical size for the formation of a chimney as a function of the capillary length. For even larger drops and extended puddles many disconnected chimneys occur that can grow to sizes large enough for the formation of new drops inside them. By varying the temperatures and the pressure in the system, we observe various such patterns. When the area covered by a puddle becomes large it touches the hot bottom plate locally and boils off rapidly. This can be attributed to a local reduction of the bottom plate surface temperature below the Leidenfrost temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sometimes it is thought that sharp transitions between potentially different turbulent states should be washed out by the prevailing intense fluctuations and short coherence lengths and times. Contrary to this expectation, we found a sequence of such transitions in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection as the rotation rate was increased. This phenomenon was observed in cylindrical samples with aspect ratios (diameter/height) Γ = 1.00 and 0.50. It became most prominent at very large Rayleigh numbers up to 2 x 1012, where the fluctuations are extremely vigorous, and was manifested most clearly for Γ= 1.00. It was found in the heat transport as well as in the temperature gradient near the sample center. We conjecture that the transitions are between different large-scale structures which involve changes of symmetry and thus cannot be gradual [L. Landau, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 7, 19 (1937); L. D. Landau, Phys. Z. Sowjetunion 11, 26 (1937); L. D. Landau, in Collected Papers of L. D. Landau, (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1965), pp. 193-216]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report measurements of the properties of turbulent thermal convection of a fluid with a Prandtl number $\mathit{Pr}= 4. 38$ in a cylindrical cell with an aspect ratio $\Gamma = 0. 50$. The rotational symmetry was broken by a small tilt of the sample axis relative to gravity. Measurements of the heat transport (as expressed by the Nusselt number Nu), as well as properties of the large-scale circulation (LSC) obtained from temperature measurements along the sidewall, are presented. In contradistinction to similar experiments using containers of aspect ratio $\Gamma = 1. 00$ (Ahlers et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 557, 2006b, pp. 347–367) and $\Gamma = 0. 50$ (Chillà et al., Eur. Phys. J. B, vol. 40, 2004, pp. 223–227; Sun, Xi & Xia, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 95, 2005, p. 074502; Roche et al., New J. Phys., vol. 12, 2010, p. 085014), we see a very small increase of the heat transport for tilt angles up to about 0.1 rad. Based on measurements of properties of the LSC we explain this increase by a stabilization of the single-roll state (SRS) of the LSC and a destabilization of the double-roll state (DRS) (it is known from previous work that the SRS has a slightly larger heat transport than the DRS). Quantitative measurements of the strength and the orientation of the LSC show that its azimuthal diffusion is suppressed with increasing tilt whereas the torsional oscillation becomes more pronounced and its frequency increases. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using compressed gases with Prandtl numbers near 0.7, we obtained flow visualizations of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a cylindrical sample with an aspect ratio &Ggr; = D/L ss 10 (D is the diameter and L the height) by the shadowgraph method. Focusing on the plumes under the top plate, we found that their length had a log-normal distribution, suggesting a fragmentation process. Fragmentation events could be visually identified in the images and involved plume interactions with bulk fluctuations or upwelling domain walls. We found the mean spacing between plumes to vary with the Rayleigh number in proportion to the volume-averaged Kolmogorov length of the turbulent bulk fluctuations, providing further evidence for plume-bulk interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one, whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like Ra1/4Ek2/3 where the Ekman number Ek decreases with increasing rotation rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]