Experiments with Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Abstract

After a brief review in the Introduction of the major breakthroughs in the study of Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) since the experiments of Henri Bénard, a few selected topics are presented in more detail. The effect of thermal noise on the bifurcation to convection is discussed because experimental work on this is quite recent and as yet incomplete. Examples of spatio-temporal chaos are examined because this interesting nonlinear state is as yet incompletely understood. The effect of rotation on RBC is presented because some of the experimental results disagree with modern theories.