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Description
Title: | The Spatial Structure of Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection |
Author(s): | Fernandes, Richard Lawrence Joseph |
Doctoral Committee Chair(s): | Adrian, Ronald J. |
Department / Program: | Theoretical and Applied Mechanics |
Discipline: | Theoretical and Applied Mechanics |
Degree Granting Institution: | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Degree: | Ph.D. |
Genre: | Dissertation |
Subject(s): | Physics, Fluid and Plasma |
Abstract: | The circulation cells visualized in the present study are a manifestation, in the fully turbulent regime, of the cellular structures commonly observed at low Rayleigh numbers. The circulation cells are proposed as a physical description (not an explanation) of the phenomenon referred to in the literature as the wind of turbulence. They were found to contain approximately 40% of the total kinetic energy, and this fraction was found to be approximately independent of the Rayleigh number. This leads to the conclusion that the wind of turbulence (U) scales with the velocity fluctuations (ufluct), U ∼ u fluct. The visualizations indicate that the large-scale circulation engulfs the small-scale structures and advect them across the layer. The engulfment of small-scale buoyant elements may be the mechanism by which the large-scale circulation obtains the buoyancy required to maintain its kinetic energy. |
Issue Date: | 2001 |
Type: | Text |
Language: | English |
Description: | 159 p. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2142/87776 |
Other Identifier(s): | (MiAaPQ)AAI9996631 |
Date Available in IDEALS: | 2015-09-28 |
Date Deposited: | 2001 |
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
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Dissertations and Theses - Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois