Rayleigh–Bénard convection
natural convection, occurring in a plane horizontal layer of fluid heated from below, in which the fluid develops a regular pattern of convection cells known as Bénard cells
In fluid thermodynamics, Rayleigh–Bénard convection is a type of natural convection, occurring in a planar horizontal layer of fluid heated from below, in which the fluid develops a regular pattern of convection cells known as Bénard cells. Such systems were first investigated by Joseph Valentin Boussinesq and Anton Oberbeck in the 19th century. This phenomenon can also manifest where a species denser than the electrolyte is consumed from below and generated at the top. Bénard–Rayleigh convection is one of the most commonly studied convection phenomena because of its analytical and experimental accessibility. The convection patterns are the most carefully examined example of self-organizing nonlinear systems. Time-dependent self-similar analytic solutions are known for the velocity fields and for the temperature distribution as well.
Buoyancy, and hence gravity, are responsible for the appearance of convection cells. The initial movement is the upwelling of less-dense fluid from the warmer bottom layer. This upwelling spontaneously organizes into a regular pattern of cells.
Physical processes
The features of Bénard convection can be obtained by a simple experiment first conducted by Henri Bénard, a French physicist, in 1900.
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