The G\"ottingen rotating turbulent Rayleigh--B\'enard convection facility

ORAL

Abstract

This presentation will focus on the newly commissioned rotating RBC facility at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS). The MPIDS has a pressure vessel, called the Uboot of G\"ottingen, which can house different RBC cells. By pressurizing the Uboot with sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen, or helium up to 19 bars one can obtain Rayleigh numbers spanning $10^9 < Ra < 10^{15}$, at nearly constant Prandtl numbers. Recently, a rotating table was constructed that can operate outside as well as in the Uboot, on top of which the current RBC cell of aspect ratio 0.50 can be installed. The accessible parameter space is $0.02 < Ro^{-1} < 20$ for the inverse Rossby number and $10^{-8} < Ek < 10^{-3}$ for the Ekman number. At strong rotation (small Ek) but still turbulently convective (large Ra) one enters the geostrophic turbulent regime. Recent experiments involve measuring in and near this regime of which preliminary results will be shown and discussed.

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Authors

  • Eberhard Bodenschatz

    Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and self-organisation, Goettingen, Germany., MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, G\&#034;ottingen, Germany, MPI Dynamics \& Self-Organization (MPIDS), Goettingen 37077, Germany

  • Dennis P. M. van Gils

    Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen; Physics of Fluids, University of Twente, Enschede, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, G\&#034;ottingen, Germany

  • Xiaozhou He

    MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen

  • Guenter Ahlers

    MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Goettingen; Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, University of California Santa Barbara, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, Univ of California - Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, USA