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The effects of strongly varying fluid properties, beyond the validity range of the so-called Boussinesq approximation, were experimentally studied in Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection. Two experiments were conducted in the same cubical RB convection cell at similar Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers. In one experiment water was used as working fluid and the imposed temperature difference between the top and bottom plates of the cell was such to ensure non-Boussinesq conditions. In the other experiment, taken as a reference for Boussinesq conditions, methanol was used as working fluid, allowing a smaller temperature difference between the plates. In both experiments the instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields were determined experimentally in a vertical cross section of the cell by using particle image velocimetry. Results show a non-Boussinesq effect that manifests itself as an increase of the time-averaged horizontal velocity component close to the bottom wall of the cell and as a global top-bottom asymmetry of the velocity field. This is an experimental study of the whole velocity field of RB convection at non-Boussinesq conditions.

Abstract

The working conditions of the Scaled Convective Airflow Laboratory Experiment (SCALEX) at Technische Universität Ilmenau and sample experiments are reported. The SCALEX facility is a pressure vessel which allows for downscaling of laboratory experiments up to a factor of 20 by compression of gaseous working fluids, air or sulfur hexafluoride, to change the material properties of the fluid. The requirements and conditions for downscaling of fluid dynamical problems are discussed in detail. Long-term high and low pressure tests are conducted to screen the stability of the experimental environment inside the vessel against pressure and temperature fluctuations. Finally, a Rayleigh–Bénard convection experiment at an aspect ratio 10 is performed inside the SCALEX facility as a proof of concept. The reference experiment was conducted under 4.5 bar pressure for Ra = 1.9 × 105. However, the Rayleigh number could be varied in a wide range of Ra = 104 … 108. The flow investigation was pursued with stereoscopic particle image velocimetry in horizontal mid-plane through the convection cell. To improve the image quality the cameras were placed inside the pressure cell and tested up to 6 bar. Thus the feasibility of optical flow measurements at elevated pressures is shown.

Abstract

We apply the weak formalism on the Boussinesq equations, to characterize scaling properties of the mean and the standard deviation of the potential, kinetic and viscous energy flux in very high resolution numerical simulations. The local Bolgiano-Oboukhov length L BO is investigated and it is found that its value may change of an order of magnitude through the domain, in agreement with previous results. We investigate the scale-by-scale averaged terms of the weak equations, which are a generalization of the Karman-Howarth-Monin and Yaglom equations. We have not found the classical Bolgiano-Oboukhov picture, but evidence of a mixture of Bolgiano-Oboukhov and Kolmogorov scalings. In particular, all the terms are compatible with a Bolgiano-Oboukhov local Hölder exponent for the temperature and a Kolmogorov 41 for the velocity. This behavior may be related to anisotropy and to the strong heterogeneity of the convective flow, reflected in the wide distribution of Bolgiano-Oboukhov local scales. The scale-by-scale analysis allows us also to compare the theoretical Bolgiano-Oboukhov length L BO computed from its definition with that empirically extracted through scalings obtained from weak analysis. The key result of the work is to show that the analysis of local weak formulation of the problem is powerful to characterize the fluctuation properties. †

We report on Rayleigh-Bénard convection with strongly varying fluid properties experimentally and theoretically. Using pressurized sulfur-hexafluoride (SF 6) above its critical point, we are able to make measurements at mean temperatures (T m) and pressures (P m) along Prandtl-number isolines in the (T, P) parameter space. This allows us to keep the mean Rayleigh-(Ra m) and Prandtl number (Pr m) constant while changing the temperature dependences of the fluid properties independently, e.g., probing the liquidlike or gaslike region that are left and right of the supercritical isochore. Hence, non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq (NOB) effects can be measured and analyzed cleanly. We measure the temperature at midheight (T c) as well as the global vertical heat flux. We observe a significant heat transport enhancement of up to 112% under strong NOB conditions. Furthermore, we develop a theoretical model for the global vertical heat flux based on ideas of Grossmann and Lohse (GL) in OB systems, adjusted for nonconstant fluid properties. In this model, the NOB effects influence the boundary layer and hence T c , but the change of the heat flux is predominantly due to a change of the fluid properties in the bulk, in particular the heat capacity c p and density ρ. Predictions from our model are consistent with our experimental results as well as with previous measurements carried out in pressurized ethane and cryogenic helium.

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