In the winter, warm air rises from our floor vents or radiators, creating a complex, invisible flow in the background of our lives. Buoyancy lifts warmer air upward while cooler, Keep reading
Tag: Rayleigh-Benard convection
Flow Inside Convection Cells
Looking at convective cells, it’s easy to think that they are still and unmoving. But when you add particles, their inner flow becomes obvious. Warm, light fluid moves up through Keep reading
Creating Clouds
What you see here is the formation of clouds and rain – but it’s not quite what you’re used to seeing outside. This is an experiment using a mixture of Keep reading
Turbulent Convection
These golden lines reveal the complexity of turbulent convective flow. They come from a numerical simulation of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection, a situation in which fluid trapped between two plates is Keep reading
Convection Cells
This magnified photo shows Rayleigh-Benard convection cells in silicone oil. This buoyancy-driven convection occurs when a fluid is heated from below and cooled above. Inside the cells, fluid rises through Keep reading
Convection Cells
Human eyesight is not always the best for observing how nature behaves around us. Fortunately, we’ve developed cameras and sensors that allow us to effectively see in wavelengths beyond those Keep reading
Holiday Fluids: Cocoa Convection
If you make a proper cup of hot chocolate this holiday, watch carefully and you just may catch some Rayleigh-Benard convection like the video above. (Note, video playback is 3x.) Keep reading
Peering Inside the Kettle
Here natural convection is explored experimentally in a quasi-2D environment. The researchers demonstrate how this phenomenon, which is much like that seen in a boiling pot, can be investigated by measuring Keep reading
Convective Cells
Convective cells form as fluid is heated from below. As the fluid near the bottom warms, its density decreases and buoyancy causes it to rise while cooler fluid descends to Keep reading
Convection Visualization
Here on Earth a fascinating form of convection occurs every time we put a pot of water on the stove. As the fluid near the burner warms up, its density Keep reading