Experimental study of high-Rayleigh-number convection in a horizontal cavity with different end temperatures

Abstract

The paper summarizes results from an experimental study of buoyancy-induced motion and heat transfer in a horizontal rectangular cavity with the two vertical ends at different temperatures and the long horizontal walls adiabatic. The cavity height/length ratio isA= 0·0625. The high-Rayleigh-number range reported on in this paper, 2 × 108<Ra< 2 × 109, has not been studied before. It is shown that, contrary to lower-Rayleigh-number behaviour known previously, the core flow structure is non-parallel and is dominated by horizontal intrusions flowing along each of the two insulated horizontal walls of the enclosure. The fluid embraced by the two horizontal jets is practically stagnant and thermally stratified. Flow visualization experiments suggest that adjacent to the two horizontal jets two secondary flat cells are formed by the baroclinic pressure field in an analogous way to what is observed in intrusions in a stratified fluid. Nusselt-number-Rayleigh-number results for the overall end-to-end heat transfer in the horizontal direction are reported and compared with previous experimental and theoretical results available for lower Rayleigh numbers. It is shown also that the transition from a parallel core structure to one dominated by intrusion layers is governed by the parameterRa½A, withRa¼A< 1 as necessary condition for a parallel core flow.