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Boundary layer fluctuations and their effects on mean and variance temperature profiles in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Yin Wang1, Xiaozhou He2, and Penger Tong1

  • 1Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
  • 2Institute for Turbulence-Noise-Vibration Interaction and Control, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 1, 082301(R) – Published 9 December, 2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.1.082301

Abstract

We report simultaneous measurements of the mean temperature profile θ(z) and temperature variance profile η(z) near the lower conducting plate of a specially designed quasi-two-dimensional cell for turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The measured θ(z) is found to have a universal scaling form θ(z/δ) with varying thermal boundary layer (BL) thickness δ, and its functional form agrees well with the recently derived BL equation by Shishkina et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 114302 (2015)]. The measured η(z), on the other hand, is found to have a scaling form η(z/δ) only in the near-wall region with z/δ≲2. Based on the experimental findings, we derive a BL equation for η(z/δ), which is in good agreement with the experimental results. These BL equations thus provide a common framework for understanding the effect of BL fluctuations.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 1, 082301(R)– Published 9 December, 2016
  • Received 1 February 2016

©2016 American Physical Society

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