High Rayleigh Number Convection

Abstract

Turbulent convection exemplifies many of the startling aspects of turbulent flows that have been uncovered in the past two decades, but frequently exhibits a novel twist. Thus, as in the case of free shear flows, convection can organize into large-scale vortical structures, but these then react back in subtle ways on the boundary layers which ultimately sustain them. Thermal plumes are a coherent mode of heat transport, analogous to boundary layer bursts, yet their overall effect can be surprisingly close to the structureless predictions of mixing length theory. Convection cells are closed, which facilitates their experimental control, but fluctuations never exit and there is a dynamically determined bulk forcing. While the single­ pass mode characteristic of wind tunnel experiments seems simpler, the convection cell is, in ways to be discussed, more constrained. This review aims to familiarize the turbulence researcher with con­ vergent lines of investigation in convection and also to remind those working in convection that turbulence is not a new subject. To situate convection within the gamut of other turbulent flows, let us by way of introduction contrast the directions in which convection has developed with research on the turbulent boundary layer. From the onset of convection up to Rayleigh numbers Ra � 1 0 times critical, there is a great wealth of information about flow structures (which can be visualized from above), and their relative stabilities (Busse 198 1 ) . Turbulence, in the sense of many coupled modes, and not just sensitive dependence on initial conditions, can arise for low Ra in large aspect ratio