Measured local heat transport in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Feb 21;90(7):074501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.074501. Epub 2003 Feb 20.

Abstract

Local convective heat flux in turbulent thermal convection is obtained from simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements in an aspect-ratio-one convection cell filled with water. It is found that fluctuations of the vertical heat flux are highly intermittent and are determined primarily by the thermal plumes in the system. The experiment reveals a unique mechanism for the heat transport in turbulent convection.