Prandtl-, Rayleigh-, and Rossby-number dependence of heat transport in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Experimental and numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Rayleigh, Prandtl, and Rossby numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection are presented. For relatively small Ra approximately 10(8) and large Pr modest rotation can enhance the heat transfer by up to 30%. At lar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2009-01, Vol.102 (4), p.044502-044502, Article 044502
Main Authors: Zhong, Jin-Qiang, Stevens, Richard J A M, Clercx, Herman J H, Verzicco, Roberto, Lohse, Detlef, Ahlers, Guenter
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Experimental and numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Rayleigh, Prandtl, and Rossby numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection are presented. For relatively small Ra approximately 10(8) and large Pr modest rotation can enhance the heat transfer by up to 30%. At larger Ra there is less heat-transfer enhancement, and at small Pr less, similar 0.7 there is no heat-transfer enhancement at all. We suggest that the small-Pr behavior is due to the breakdown of the heat-transfer-enhancing Ekman pumping because of larger thermal diffusion.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.044502