Work

The inertial regimes in Rayleigh–Bénard convection

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Most theoretical studies of Rayleigh–Bénard Convection assume that the velocity boundary layer develops on the whole width or height H of the convection cell, or that the development length h scales with H . We argue that it is probably not the case, and examine the consequences of an intermediate asymptotics hypothesis in the sense of Barenblatt [1], the development length h scaling with the Nusselt number: h ∝ H Nu - α . This hypothesis is checked through existing experimental data, which show that α can take several different values. The analysis of Grossmann and Lohse [2] is reexamined with this new point of view, stressing on pure scaling regimes.

Source: Comptes Rendus Physique

DOI: 10.5802/crphys.257

Authors: Bernard Castaing, Francesca Chillà, Julien Salort, Yann Fraigneau, Anne Sergent