Abstract
We present long-time thermal data on turbulent evolution in Rayleigh-Bénard convection for cylindrical containers of aspect ratios and Prandtl numbers near 0.6. The first time dependence observed was more complex than the intermittent flows reported by Ahlers and Walden for , although the periodicity they observed was reproduced for . The turbulent onset for , showing substantial regimes of periodicity, was quite different from that for . We conclude that changes of order unity in strongly affect turbulent onset, even for moderately large aspect ratios.
- Received 19 July 1982
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.26.3723
©1982 American Physical Society