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Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
Mean velocity profile in confined turbulent convection
Ronald du Puits1, Christian Resagk, André Thess
1Ilmenau University of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.O. Box 100565, 98684 Ilmenau, Germany.
Abstract:
In this Letter, highly resolved measurements of the horizontal velocity inside the boundary layer of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection are reported. They were performed in a cylindrical box with an aspect ratio Gamma=1.13 which was filled with air with a Prandtl number Pr=0.7. The horizontal velocity was measured along the central axis close to the cooling plate in a range of Rayleigh numbers between Ra=10;{11} and Ra=10;{12} using a two-dimensional laser Doppler velocimeter. We demonstrate that the profile of the mean velocity strongly differs from that of classical shear flows like the Blasius shape of a laminar flat plate boundary layer or a turbulent logarithmic velocity profile with standard coefficients.
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