Rayleigh‐Bénard Experiment Probes Transition from Chaos to Turbulence
DOI: 10.1063/1.2811443
Progress in understanding chaos—actually, temporal chaos—has been enhanced over the past ten years by the close agreement between some experiments and the theoretical descriptions of chaotic behavior. Our understanding of turbulence is not yet at the same level. However, a group led by Albert Libchaber at the University of Chicago has recently characterized with great accuracy turbulent flows in a Rayleigh‐Bénard cell. The Rayleigh‐Bénard experiment studies convective flows in a fluid that is confined in a gravitational field between two parallel horizontal plates and heated from below. Earlier experiments on this system by Libchaber, among others, played an important role in our understanding of chaos.
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