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Thermal Boundary Layer Equation for Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection

Fluid Dynamics 2015-06-23 v2

Abstract

We report a new thermal boundary layer equation for turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection for Prandtl number Pr>1 that takes into account the effect of turbulent fluctuations. These fluctuations are neglected in existing equations, which are based on steady-state and laminar assumptions. Using this new equation, we derive analytically the mean temperature profiles in two limits: (a) Pr>1, Pr~1 and (b) Pr>>1. These two theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with the results of our direct numerical simulations for Pr=4.38 (water) and Pr=2547.9 (glycerol) respectively.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1411.5826,
  title  = {Thermal Boundary Layer Equation for Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection},
  author = {Olga Shishkina and Susanne Horn and Sebastian Wagner and Emily S. C. Ching},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1411.5826},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 3 figures