Influence of Initial and Boundary Conditions on Bénard Convection

Abstract

Steady and unsteady free convection within rotating and nonrototing rectongular boxes which are heated from below and cooled from above have been investigated. The onset of steady convection was calculated using the Boussinesq approximation and a Galerkin method. The influences of different heating rates and rotation rates on the flow configurations were measured optically. The test fluids used for demonstrating the influence of the Prandtl number and the application range of linear stability theory were silicone oil and nitrogen.