Abstract—Laboratory experiments were conducted to study heat transport mechanisms in Rayleigh-Bénard convection subjected to rotation along the vertical axis. The parameter range for this study was Rayleigh numbers, Ra=1x107-2x108, and Taylor numbers, Ta=0-1.89x1010. The working fluid was water with a Prandtl number Pr=6. Heat transport was measured for varying rotation rates for a fixed set of Rayleigh numbers. The Nusselt number, Nu, plotted as a function of Ra shows dependence on rotation rates. The vertical heat transport measurements show presence of coherent structures in the presence of rotation. These structures also show some periodicity for a range of rotation rates. The data is roughly consistent with an assumption that the enhancement of heat transport owing to rotation is proportional to the vortical structures penetrating the boundary layer. The vertical heat transport measurements assess the role of Ekman pumping in controlling heat transport in different regimes of Rayleigh and Taylor numbers.
Index Terms—Turbulent convection, heat transport, coherent structures, ekman pumping.
S. Balasubramanian was with Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA. He is now with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, MH, 400076, India (e-mail: sridharb@iitb.ac.in).
R. E. Ecke is with Center for Non Linear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA (e-mail: ecke@lanl.gov).
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Cite:Sridhar Balasubramanian and Robert E. Ecke, "Experimental Study of Rayleigh-Bénard Convection in the Presence of Rotation," International Journal of Materials, Mechanics and Manufacturing vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 148-152, 2013.
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