Origin of the Temperature Oscillation in Turbulent Thermal Convection

2008/06/30 by Heng-Dong Xi, Sheng-Qi Zhou, Sheng‐Qi Zhou +4 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations #Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones Research #physics.flu-dyn

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.044503

5 figures

arxiv created 2008/11/18 · openalex publication_date 2009/01/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report an experimental study of the three-dimensional spatial structure of the low-frequency temperature oscillations in a cylindrical Rayleigh-Bénard convection cell. Through simultaneous multipoint temperature measurements it is found that, contrary to the popular scenario, thermal plumes are emitted neither periodically nor alternately, but randomly and continuously, from the top and bottom plates. We further identify a new flow mode-the sloshing mode of the large-scale circulation (LSC). This sloshing mode, together with the torsional mode of the LSC, are found to be the origin of the oscillation of the temperature field.

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