Heat transport measurements in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
We present experimental heat transport measurements of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection with rotation about a vertical axis. The fluid, water with Prandtl number ({sigma}) about 6, was confined in a cell which had a square cross section of 7.3 cm x 7.3 cm and a height of 9.4 cm. Heat transport was measured for Rayleigh numbers 2 x 10{sup 5} < Ra < 5 x 10{sup 8} and Taylor numbers 0 < Ta < 5 x 10{sup 9}. We show the variation of normalized heat transport, the Nusselt number, at fixed dimensional rotation rate {Omega}{sub D}, at fixed Ra varying Ta, at fixed Ta varying Ra, and at fixed Rossby number Ro. The scaling of heat transport in the range 10{sup 7} to about 10{sup 9} is roughly 0.29 with a Ro dependent coefficient or equivalently is also well fit by a combination of power laws of the form a Ra{sup 1/5} + b Ra{sup 1/3} . The range of Ra is not sufficient to differentiate single power law or combined power law scaling. The overall impact of rotation on heat transport in turbulent convection is assessed.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396
- OSTI ID:
- 960921
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-08-06538; LA-UR-08-6538; TRN: US201008%%826
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics; ISSN 1539-3755
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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