Sidewall effects in Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Stevens, R.J.A.M.; Lohse, D.; Verzicco, R.

doi:10.1017/jfm.2013.664

Publication 30 · Thermal convection

Sidewall effects in Rayleigh-Bénard convection

R.J.A.M. Stevens, D. Lohse, R. Verzicco, J. Fluid Mech. 741, 1-27 (2014).

Main finding

Plate–wall junctions and wall thermal inertia can change both observed flux and the flow that carries it; global Nu alone does not diagnose wall neutrality.

Instantaneous temperature fields under two sidewall conditions in a cylindrical cell — **How to read the figure.** Instantaneous temperature in a vertical plane for two sidewall treatments at the same Rayleigh number. The wall changes not only the measured heat flux but the structure of the flow that carries it. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 4. R.J.A.M. Stevens et al. (2014). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

The container can become part of the experiment.

Research context

This is the mechanism-first sidewall anchor extended by the one-to-one experiment/DNS comparison Effect of sidewall on heat transfer and flow structure….

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