Eur. Phys. J. E (2012) 35: 58
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2012-12058-1

Colloquium

New perspectives in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection

¹ Laboratoire de Physique, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46 Allée d’Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France
² Institut für Thermo- und Fluiddynamik, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Postfach 100565, D-98684, Ilmenau, Germany

^* e-mail: fchilla@ens-lyon.fr
^** e-mail: joerg.schumacher@tu-ilmenau.de

Received: 15 May 2012
Revised: 15 June 2012
Accepted: 15 June 2012
Published online: 13 July 2012

Abstract

Recent experimental, numerical and theoretical advances in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection are presented. Particular emphasis is given to the physics and structure of the thermal and velocity boundary layers which play a key role for the better understanding of the turbulent transport of heat and momentum in convection at high and very high Rayleigh numbers. We also discuss important extensions of Rayleigh-Bénard convection such as non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq effects and convection with phase changes.