https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2004-00261-3
Long relaxation times and tilt sensitivity in Rayleigh Bénard turbulence
Laboratoire de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure de Lyon,
UMR5672, 46 allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 7, France
Corresponding author: a This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Received:
17
March
2004
Revised:
19
May
2004
Published online:
12
August
2004
Abstract
We study the influence of a small tilt angle (
rd) on the Nusselt number in a 1/2 aspect ratio Rayleigh-Bénard cell, at high Rayleigh number (
). The small decrease observed is interpreted as revealing a two rolls structure of the flow. Transitions between different global flows are also observed, on very long times, comparable to the
diffusion time on the whole cell. The consequence is that the Nusselt number
observed in most high Ra experiments should significantly depend on initial
conditions.
PACS: 92.60.Ek – Convection, turbulence, and diffusion / 47.27.Te – Convection and heat transfer / 44.25.+f – Natural convection
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2004

