# High Rayleigh number turbulent convection in a gas near the gas-liquid critical point.

## Abstract

$`SF_6`$ in the vicinity of its critical point was used to study turbulent convection up to exceptionally high Rayleigh numbers, $`Ra`$, (up to $`510^{14}`$) and to verify for the first time the generalized scaling laws for the heat transport and the large scale circulation velocity as a function of $`Ra`$ and the Prandtl number, $`Pr`$, in very wide range of these parameters. The both scaling laws obtained are consistent with theoretical predictions by B.Shraiman and E.Siggia, Phys. Rev. A 42, 3650 (1990).

Turbulent convection has recently attracted a lot of attention due to possibility to tune and control the relevant parameters with unbeatable precision. The fundamental aspect of the turbulent convection is a competition between buoyancy and shear . An important issue in our understanding of the convective turbulence is experimental test of theoretical predictions on the Prandtl number, $`Pr`$, dependence of global characteristics, such as nondimensional heat transport, $`Nu(Ra,Pr)`$, and Reynolds number of the large scale circulation flow, $`Re(Ra,Pr)`$. The difficulty to measure the $`Pr`$ dependence in turbulent convection arises from the fact that in conventional fluids it cannot be varied substantially but only by changing the fluid which is not always a simple task. The verification of these scaling relations will be a crucial test of the theory.   
In this Letter we present results on the Pr dependence of global properties of the flow, namely, global heat transport, characterized by $`Nu`$, and large scale circulation velocity, characterized by $`Re`$.   
There are two possibilities to reach high $`Ra`$ number convection regime: either to increase temperature difference across the cell or to vary physical parameters, which appear in the expression for $`Ra=\frac{g\alpha \mathrm{\Delta }TL^3}{\kappa \nu }`$, where $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ is the temperature difference across the cell, $`g`$ is the gravitational constant, $`\alpha `$ is the thermal expansion, and $`\kappa `$ and $`\nu `$ are the thermal diffusivity and kinematic viscosity, respectively. The latter possibility was used successfully in compressed gases ($`He`$ and $`SF_6`$) at almost constant value of $`Pr`$ about one. Another system in which this method of variation of $`Ra`$ number in a wide range can be used, is a gas near its gas-liquid critical point(CP). It was realized long time ago that heat transport is enhanced dramatically near $`T_c`$ . But it was only recently shown experimentally that the critical temperature difference for the convection onset decreases drastically with the distance from $`T_c`$ due to strong variations of thermodynamical and kinetic properties of a gas in the vicinity of CP . Singular behaviour of the thermodynamic and kinetic properties of the fluid near $`T_c`$ provides the opportunity both to reach extremal values of the control parameter $`Ra`$ and to scan $`Pr`$ over an extremely wide range . All these features make the system unique in this respect.   
However, the most exciting aspect of the system is the possibility to perform Laser Doppler velocimetry(LDV) measurements that we recently demonstrated . Small temperature differences used to reach high $`Ra`$, lead to rather small fluctuations of refraction index in the flow. It gives us the possibility to use a standard LDV technique. On the other hand, the problem of seeding particles in a close flow of a gas, which coagulate and sediment rather fast, turns out to be unsolvable at the moment. Fortunately, we discovered that the existence of the critical density fluctuations provided us the possibility to perform LDV measurements of the velocity field in a rather wide range of closeness to the CP between $`310^4`$ and $`10^2`$ in reduced temperature $`\tau =(\overline{T}T_c)/T_c`$, where $`\overline{T}`$ is the mean cell temperature. The upper limit is defined by a small scattering amplitude, and the lower limit- by multiscattering in the large convection cell .   
At the same time those obvious advantages come together with limitations and new features which should be taken into account and studied. Strong dependence of gas properties on the closeness to $`T_c`$ manifests itself in nonuniform distribution of density in a gravitational field and variation of coefficients in the Navier-Stokes equation with temperature and density. The former, the well-known gravity effect, can be significant even at $`\tau 10^3`$ and 10 cm height cell: the density difference across the cell reaches 1% that leads to rather significant variations in the fluid properties. Fortunately, a temperature gradient compensates the gravity when heating from below, and strong convection reduces the characteristic size of nonuniformity to one of about the boundary layer height. This leads to reduction of the density nonuniformity to a tolerant level much below 0.1%.   
In the Boussinesq approximation fluid properties are assumed to be constant despite the temperature gradient across the cell, except for the buoyancy term. According to  the degree of deviation from the Boussinesq approximation is adequately described by the ratio of the temperature drop across the top boundary layer to the temperature drop across the bottom boundary layer. As the experiment shows , significant deviations in the measurements of global transport properties of the turbulent convection occurs if this ratio reduces below 0.5. According to our estimates measurements at $`Ra`$ up to $`10^{15}`$ can be done while non-Boussinesq effects are still relatively small. In the data presented the temperature drop ratio was above 0.7. So small deviations from the scaling behaviour were observed at highest $`Pr`$ and $`Ra`$.   
There are another aspects, related to the proximity to $`T_c`$ such as compressibility (besides adiabatic gradient) and breaking down of hydrodynamic description due to macroscopical size of thermodynamical fluctuations. Simple estimates show that both these factors do not play any significant role in the range of parameters under studies .   
Contrary to the compressed gas convection, here one cannot cover wide range of $`Ra`$ for one value of $`Pr`$. On the other hand, the data presented cover the range of $`Ra`$ from $`10^{10}`$ at low values of $`Pr`$ ($`Pr=8`$) far from $`T_c`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=12mK`$ up to the largest attainable in a laboratory $`Ra=510^{14}`$ at high values of $`Pr`$ close to $`T_c`$. The whole range of the reduced mean temperature was $`410^2>\tau >210^4`$. And finally, as a result of large compressibility and relatively large cell height the adiabatic temperature gradient was observed. This effect will be discussed below.   
The experiment we present here, was done with a high purity gas $`SF_6`$ (99.998%) in the vicinity of $`T_c`$ and at the critical density($`\rho _c=730kg/m^3`$). This fluid was chosen due to the relatively low critical temperature ($`T_c=318.73`$ K) and pressure($`P_c=37.7`$ bar) and well-known thermodynamic and kinetic properties far away and in the vicinity of CP. This gas was widely used to study the equilibrium critical phenomena. The cell is a box of a cross-section 76x76 $`mm^2`$ formed by 4 mm plexiglass walls, which are sandwiched between a Ni-plated mirror-polished copper bottom plate and a 19 mm thick sapphire top plate of $`L=105`$ mm apart.   
The cell is placed inside the pressure vessel with two side thick plastic windows to withstand the pressure difference up to 100 bar. So the cell had optical accesses from above through the sapphire window and from the sides. They were used for both shadowgraph flow visualization and for LDV. The pressure vessel was placed inside a water bath which was stabilized with rms of temperature fluctuations at the level of 0.4 $`mK`$. The gas pressure was continuously measured with 1 $`mbar`$ resolution by the absolute pressure gauge. Together with calibrated 100$`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ platinum resistor thermometer they provide us the thermodynamic scale to define the critical parameters of the fluid and then to use a parametric equation of state developed recently for $`SF_6`$.   
We should point out here that it is not obvious at all that the critical parameters, defined at equilibrium conditions, can be used for a strongly non-equilibrium state to define closeness to CP. Contrary, as suggested by theory and experiment, turbulent flow in a binary mixture near its consolute CP can suppress the critical concentration fluctuations. At $`Re`$ comparable with that achieved in our experiment, Pine et al observed the critical temperature depression up to 50 $`mK`$. We used the enhancement of the heat transport(or decrease in the temperature difference across the cell at the fixed heat flux) near CP as an indicator of the closeness to CP. The critical pressure and temperature obtained by this procedure agree within $`\pm 10mK`$ with those defined independently by light scattering at equilibrium conditions.   
The heat transport measurements were conducted at the fixed heat flux and temperature of the top sapphire plate, while the bottom temperature was measured by a calibrated thermistor epoxied in it. Local temperature measurements in a gas were made by three $`125\mu m`$ thermistors suspended on glass fibers in the interior of the cell (one at the center, and two about half way from the wall). Local vertical component velocity measurements at about $`L/4`$ from the bottom plate were conducted by using LDV on the critical density fluctuations. Shadowgraph visualization was used mostly to get qualitative information about structures and characteristic time and length scales in the flow mostly of the top and bottom boundary layers.   
From the measurements of the heat transport and, particularly, of the velocity we realized that at a small but finite temperature differences, much larger than defined by the critical $`Ra`$ for convection onset, there exists a mechanically stable state. This temperature difference $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}`$ is defined by the adiabatic temperature gradient for the convection onset. The latter results from a fluid compressibility and is defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}/L=gT\alpha C_{p}^{}{}_{}{}^{1}`$, where $`C_p`$ is the heat capacity at constant pressure. As follows from simple thermodynamics and critical divergences of thermodynamical parameters as $`T`$ approaches $`T_c`$, the adiabatic temperature gradient saturates at a finite value $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}/L=g\rho (P/T)_v^1`$, which for $`SF_6`$ and $`L=10.5`$ cm gives $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}=9.5mK`$ for $`\tau <10^2`$, So with available temperature stability and resolution it can be measured. Then, as shown in , $`Ra`$ should be modified as $`Ra=\frac{gL^3\alpha (\mathrm{\Delta }T\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad})}{\nu \kappa }`$.   
The most sensitive probe to detect the convection onset in our case was the local velocity measurements. The results of the mean vertical velocity $`V_m`$ and rms of vertical velocity fluctuations $`V_s`$ measurements at $`\tau =810^4`$ are presented in Fig.1. Both signals show clear transition at $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}=9.5\pm 0.5mK`$, that agrees well with the theoretical value . These measurements were done for several values of the reduced temperature in the range $`810^3>\tau >210^4`$. It was found that $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}(\tau )`$ is constant and independent of $`\tau `$ in agreement with the theory. This value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }T_{ad}`$ was used further to correct the $`Ra`$ values. As a result of this correction for each $`Pr`$ both $`Nu`$ vs $`Ra`$(Fig.2) and $`V_s`$ vs $`Ra`$(Fig.3) dependences show scaling laws in rather wide range of $`Ra`$.   
The heat transport measurements were done in the range $`1.610^2>\tau >210^4`$. In order to keep $`Pr`$ constant, $`\tau `$ was kept constant, while $`\mathrm{\Delta }T`$ changed during the measurements. The range of $`\tau `$ was limited from higher temperature end by mechanical stability of constructing materials (mostly plexiglass) and from lower end by the temperature stabilization of the system. Heat transport measurements were also conducted far away from CP at $`P=20bar`$, $`\overline{T}=303K`$ and the density $`\rho =0.18g/cm^3`$, that corresponds to $`Pr=0.9`$, and at $`P=50bar`$, $`\overline{T}=323K`$ and $`\rho =1.07g/cm^3`$, that corresponds to $`Pr=1.5`$. The data far away from CP cover the range of $`Ra`$ between $`10^9`$ and $`510^{12}`$ with the temperature differences across the cell from about $`0.1K`$ till $`10K`$. By making all appropriate corrections for heat losses through the lateral walls, gas and insulation outside the cell, and for a temperature drop across the top sapphire plate, we found that the data on the heat transport far away from CP are in a good agreement with a 2/7 law for $`10^9Ra510^{12}`$. These data combined with the heat transport measurements in the same cell in the vicinity of CP fot higher values of $`Pr`$ can be scaled and presented in a power law form: $`Nu=0.22Ra^{0.3\pm 0.03}Pr^{0.2\pm 0.04}`$ (Fig.4). Just a few points at the highest $`Pr`$ and $`Ra`$ deviate from this scaling due to the non-Boussinesq effect. This scaling is consistent with predictions of ref.   
We visualized a structure of the large scale flow by using shadowgraph technique through the top and side windows. Large diameter with narrow focal width imaging optics enabled us to visualize narrow slices across the cell and scan it in both vertical and horizontal directions. The flow was recorded at various $`Ra`$ and $`Pr`$. This visualization confirmed the picture of up- and down-going circulation jet flow along the cell diagonal, which forms the top and bottom turbulent boundary layers. The bulk of the cell appears homogeneous. The turbulent character of the flow at the boundary layers is seen as a rapid and ”violent” horizontal motions .   
The circulation frequency which corresponds to the travel time of a fluid element passing through one cycle of the large eddy, is observed as a peak in the power spectra for both the velocity and temperature fluctuations(see the insert in Fig.5). We also measured directly by LDV the large scale circulation velocity. However, the best results were obtained by extracting the peak frequency from the velocity power spectra at various $`Ra`$ and $`Pr`$ which can be presented in a power law form: $`Re=2.6Ra^{0.43\pm 0.02}Pr^{0.75\pm 0.02}`$ (Fig.5). Here $`Re=4f_pL^2/\nu `$, and $`f_p`$ is the peak frequency. The data from the low frequency peak in the temperature spectra far away and close to CP and from LDV measurements are consistent with this scaling law. We would like to point out that $`Re`$ reaches values up to $`10^5`$ at the highest values of $`Ra`$.   
The dependence of $`Re`$ on $`Pr`$ has almost the same exponent (within the measurement uncertainty) as one found recently in convection in helium for much narrow range of $`Pr`$, and agrees rather well with the theoretical prediction 5/7 in ref. However, the scaling of $`Re`$ with $`Ra`$ differs significantly and close to 3/7 rather to 0.5.   
We can also verify consistency of the exponents of the both scaling laws obtained by using one of them, e.g. for $`Re`$, and the exact relation for the dissipation in a bulk turbulent regime $`PrRa(Nu1)Re^3Pr^3`$. The resulting scaling relation $`NuRa^{0.29}Pr^{0.25}`$ is consistent with that found experimentally. Together with the unified scaling law in the whole range of $`Ra`$ and $`Pr`$ under studies for both transport mechanisms it suggests that a single mechanism is responsible for these scaling laws. Moreover, our data did not indicate any signature of the transition to the asymptotic regime in the heat transport, discovered recently at relatively low $`Pr`$ and $`Ra>10^{11}`$. There are possible two explanations to this fact: either at higher $`Pr`$ the transition occurs at higher $`Ra`$, or the scatter in the data for different $`Pr`$ does not allow us to observe the transition.   
In conclusion, we present for the first time the generalized scaling laws of the heat transport and the large scale flow in respect to $`Ra`$ and $`Pr`$ in a wide range of variation of there parameters. Both scaling laws are consistent with the theoretical predictions of . We believe that in the light of the recent theoretical reconsiderations of these scaling laws these data provide new insight on the turbulent convection.   
This work was partially supported by the Minerva Foundation and the Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex Systems. VS is greatful for support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.