Long-time experimental investigation of turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh–Bénard convection by noninvasive simultaneous measurements of temperature and velocity fields

Abstract

Abstract Large-scale mean patterns in Rayleigh–Bénard convection, also referred to as turbulent superstructures, have mainly been studied by means of numerical simulations so far, but experimental investigations are still rare. However, the analysis of turbulent superstructures, which are of great importance due to their effect on the local transport of heat and momentum, require both numerical and experimental data. Therefore, within the scope of this study measurements were performed in the horizontal mid plane and in a horizontal plane closer to the top of a Rayleigh–Bénard cell with an aspect ratio of $$\varGamma =l/h=25$$ Γ = l / h = 25 , thereby showing the initial formation of turbulent superstructures and their long-time rearrangement. The turbulent superstructures are investigated experimentally by noninvasive simultaneous measurements of temperature and velocity fields, using the color signal of thermochromic liquid crystals (TLCs) for the evaluation of the temperature and their temporal displacement for the determination of all three velocity components in the measurement planes via stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (stereo-PIV). Applying this measuring technique it is demonstrated that the time-averaging of instantaneous temperature and velocity fields uncovers the turbulent superstructures in both fields. Furthermore, the combination of the temperature and velocity data is used to characterize the local heat flux quantified by the local Nusselt number, which confirms that the turbulent superstructures strongly enhance the heat transfer in Rayleigh–Bénard convection. Graphic abstract