Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Physics of Fluids · University of Twente

Publication 76 · Thermal convection

Flow organisation in laterally unconfined Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence

A. Blass, R. Verzicco, D. Lohse, R.J.A.M. Stevens, D. Krug, J. Fluid Mech. 906, A26 (2021).

Main finding

The dominant horizontal structure scale grows from about 4.4H to 6.6H across the tested Ra range. Local Nu is largest in impacting and smallest in emitting regions for every simulated case; the contrast weakens with increasing Ra.

Local wall heat flux across plume impacting and emitting regions at several Rayleigh numbers
How to read the figure. (a) Local heat flux at the wall, normalised by the global value, against position relative to the plume-impacting and plume-emitting regions. (b) The conditional average for each region against Rayleigh number: the impacting region carries more flux and the emitting region less, with the gap narrowing as Rayleigh number rises. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 8. A. Blass et al. (2021). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

Large patterns organize where heat enters and leaves.

Research context

The wide periodic domain connects earlier two-dimensional flow-state work to the later finite-width study. Large-scale circulation regions organize plume emission and impact at the plates, while the contrast in their local heat flux weakens as the Rayleigh number rises.

Read the article View in the complete publication list Related thermal convection research