Richard J.A.M. Stevens

Physics of Fluids · University of Twente

Publication 16 · Thermal convection

Spatial distribution of heat flux and fluctuations in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

R. Lakkaraju, R.J.A.M. Stevens, R. Verzicco, S. Grossmann, A. Prosperetti, C. Sun, D. Lohse, Phys. Rev. E 86, 056315 (2012).

Main finding

Effective local heat-flux exponents vary monotonically from axis to sidewall in these DNS.

Local heat flux scaling exponent against radial position from axis to sidewall
How to read the figure. Local heat flux in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection resolved across the plate: the flux statistics in (a) and the effective scaling exponent extracted from them in (b). The exponent falls monotonically from the cylinder axis to the sidewall, so no single local exponent describes the whole plate. Figures 15 and 16 show azimuthal rather than radial variation and do not support this claim. Open the full-resolution figure. Figure 6. R. Lakkaraju et al. (2012). No separate licence is stated here; consult the original publication and credited source before reuse.

Why this matters

Local heat-flux statistics reveal radial structure and intermittency that a global Nusselt number cannot show.

Research context

The local-flux distributions are positively skewed and strongly intermittent, with near-wall events reaching about fifteen times the mean. Their radial dependence provides a local-statistics test for the updated Grossmann–Lohse theory, while finite-range extrapolations remain conditional.

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