Turbulent thermal convection

Abstract

Turbulent thermal convection is a phenomenon of crucial importance in understanding the heat transport and dynamics of several natural and engineering flows. Real world systems such as the Earth’s atmosphere—its oceans as well as the interior—and the interior of stars such as the Sun, are all affected to various degrees by thermal convection. The simplified physical model used to understand this ubiquitous heat transport mechanism is the Rayleigh-Bénard convection, which is a fluid flow driven by a temperature difference between the top and bottom plates of an experimental cell with adiabatic sidewalls. Despite the long history of the subject and the recent progress in theoretical, numerical and experimental domains, many questions remain unresolved. We report some recent results and discuss a few open issues.