Boundary layer evolution in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

We present a fluid dynamics video which illustrates the dynamics of the velocity field in the boundary layer in a turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection flow. The data are obtained from direct numerical simulation. 1 Video Description When a gas or fluid in a cylindrical cell of height H and diameter D is cooled from above and heated from below turbulent convection is triggered provided that the temperature difference between top and bottom plates is sufficiently large. Crucial for the deeper understanding of the mechanisms of turbulent heat transport is the analysis of the physics in the tiny boundary layers at the top and bottom [1]. The video shows the dynamics of velocity field in the thermal boundary layer. Data are obtained from direct numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations (see [2] for further details). The computational grid is given in cylindrical coordinates and contains Nr × Nφ × Nz = 513 × 1153 × 861 grid points. The simulation parameters ar