Side wall effects in Rayleigh Bénard experiments
Résumé
In {R}ayleigh {B}énard experiments, the side wall conductivity is traditionally taken into account by subtracting the empty cell heat conductivity from the measured one. We present a model showing that the correction to apply could be considerably larger. We compare to experiments and find good agreement. One of the consequences is that the {N}usselt behavior for Ra<10/sup 10/ could be closer to Nu varies as Ra/sup 1/3/ than currently assumed. Also, the wall effect can appear as a continuous change in the gamma exponent Nu varies as Ra/sup gamma /.