Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Power-Law Behavior of Power Spectra in Low Prandtl Number Rayleigh-Benard Convection

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters

The origin of the power-law decay measured in the power spectra of low Prandtl number Rayleigh-Benard convection near the onset of chaos is addressed using long time numerical simulations of the three-dimensional Boussinesq equations in cylindrical domains. The power law is found to arise from quasidiscontinuous changes in the slope of the time series of the heat transport associated with the nucleation of dislocation pairs and roll pinch-off events. For larger frequencies, the power spectra decay exponentially as expected for time continuous deterministic dynamics.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL
Sponsoring Organization:
(US)
DOE Contract Number:
W-31109-ENG-38
OSTI ID:
40277696
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 15 Vol. 87; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
The American Physical Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Transition to spiral-defect chaos in low Prandtl number convection
Journal Article · Sun Jan 15 23:00:00 EST 1995 · Physical Review Letters; (United States) · OSTI ID:6648181

Critical dynamics near the oscillatory instability in Rayleigh-Benard convection
Journal Article · Mon Oct 15 00:00:00 EDT 1984 · Phys. Rev. Lett.; (United States) · OSTI ID:6301044

Pattern selection for Rayleigh-Benard convection in intermediate aspect ratio boxes
Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1995 · Numerical Heat Transfer. Part A, Applications · OSTI ID:78246