Side wall effects in Rayleigh Bénard experiments

Philippe-Emmanuel Roche (1) , Bernard Castaing (2) , Benoît Chabaud (1) , Bernard Hébral (1) , Joël Sommeria (3)

1 CRTBT - Centre de Recherches sur les Très Basses Températures
2 Phys-ENS - Laboratoire de Physique de l'ENS Lyon
3 LEGI - Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels [Grenoble]

In {R}ayleigh {B}énard experiments, the side wall conductivity is traditionally taken into account by subtracting the empty cell heat conductivity from the measured one. We present a model showing that the correction to apply could be considerably larger. We compare to experiments and find good agreement. One of the consequences is that the {N}usselt behavior for Ra<10/sup 10/ could be closer to Nu varies as Ra/sup 1/3/ than currently assumed. Also, the wall effect can appear as a continuous change in the gamma exponent Nu varies as Ra/sup gamma /.

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Philippe-Emmanuel Roche, Bernard Castaing, Benoît Chabaud, Bernard Hébral, Joël Sommeria. Side wall effects in Rayleigh Bénard experiments. The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 2001, 24, pp.405. ⟨hal-00521145⟩