Prandtl-, Rayleigh-, and Rossby-Number Dependence of Heat Transport in Turbulent Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Abstract

Experimental and numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Rayleigh, Prandtl, and Rossby numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection are presented. For relatively small Ra approximately 10(8) and large Pr modest rotation can enhance the heat transfer by up to 30%. At larger Ra there is less heat-transfer enhancement, and at small Pr less, similar 0.7 there is no heat-transfer enhancement at all. We suggest that the small-Pr behavior is due to the breakdown of the heat-transfer-enhancing Ekman pumping because of larger thermal diffusion.