Prandtl-, Rayleigh-, and Rossby-number dependence of heat transport in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

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 $\approx 10^8$ 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≲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