Orientation changes of the large-scale circulation in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection

Eric Brown, Alexei Nikoleanko, Guenter Ahlers

Published 2005-03-18, updated 2005-06-03Version 2

We present measurements of the orientation theta_0(t) of the large-scale circulation (LSC) of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection in cylindrical cells of aspect ratio 1. theta_0(t) undergoes irregular reorientations. It contains reorientation events by rotation through angles Delta theta with a monotonically decreasing probability distribution p(Delta theta), and by cessations (where the LSC stops temporarily) with a uniform p(Delta theta). Reorientations have Poissonian statistics in time. The amplitude of the LSC and the magnitude of the azimuthal rotation rate have a negative correlation.