Thermal fluctuations and their ordering in turbulent convection

J.j Niemela and K.r Sreenivasan

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2002, vol. 315, issue 1, 203-214

Abstract: In highly nonlinear thermal convection, random fluctuations within the flow organize themselves into a self-sustaining large-scale circulation. We experimentally study some properties of this mean “wind”, including the irregular reversal of its direction. We show that the energy in the organized motion is a small fraction of the thermal energy input, and becomes increasingly smaller as the Rayleigh number increases. A rough correspondence can be made to self-organized criticality from the analysis of various probability density functions associated with the fluctuating wind.

Keywords: Rayleigh number; Turbulent convection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:315:y:2002:i:1:p:203-214

DOI: 10.1016/S0378-4371(02)01251-7

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