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Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 024503 (2009) [4 pages]

Transitions between Turbulent States in Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

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Richard J. A. M. Stevens1, Jin-Qiang Zhong2, Herman J. H. Clercx3,4, Guenter Ahlers2, and Detlef Lohse1
1Department of Science and Technology, Impact Institute, and J.M. Burgers Center for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, Post Office Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
2Department of Physics and iQCD, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
3Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Twente, Post Office Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
4Department of Physics and J.M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Post Office Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Received 13 January 2009; published 9 July 2009

Weakly rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection was studied experimentally and numerically. With increasing rotation and large enough Rayleigh number a supercritical bifurcation from a turbulent state with nearly rotation-independent heat transport to another with enhanced heat transfer is observed at a critical inverse Rossby number 1/Roc≃0.4. The strength of the large-scale convection roll is either enhanced or essentially unmodified depending on parameters for 1/Ro<1/Roc, but the strength increasingly diminishes beyond 1/Roc where it competes with Ekman vortices that cause vertical fluid transport and thus heat-transfer enhancement.

© 2009 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.024503
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.024503
PACS:
47.27.te, 47.20.Bp, 47.27.ek, 47.32.Ef
 
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