Rayleigh-Bénard system: Conference on turbulent thermal convection on a fundamental level at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization

International Conference on Rayleigh-Bénard Turbulence 2015 from 1 to 5 June in the MPIDS in Göttingen

The International Conference on Rayleigh-Bénard Turbulence 2015 will take place from 1 to 5 June in the Max Planck Institute of Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and is with more than hundred leading scientists as well as young researchers from eleven countries worldwide by far the one with the largest popularity in this series. The objective is to address the recent advances in Rayleigh-Bénard Turbulence and to encourage collaborations and interactions with researchers working in related fields.

Why does a soup warm much faster than a roast? The answer to this tricky question lies in turbulent thermal convection, i.e. the thermally driven, vigorous, and chaotic motion of liquids or gases. In the case of the soup the motion is caused by the temperature difference between the stove and its cooler surrounding.  With this motion fluids carry heat very efficiently. On the contrary, the roast behaves as a solid body and heat is transported by heat conduction alone, which is much slower.  Apart from this example, thermal convection is omni-present in nature and technology. It can be found in the atmosphere, in the oceans, in the core and mantle of planets, including our Earth, and also in the outer layer of stars, including our Sun; it is also the main route for heat transport in engineering, where heat needs to be transferred efficiently and safe in heating or cooling devices. Rayleigh-Bénard convection represents the most simple and best controllable set-up to study turbulent thermal convection on a fundamental level. Here fluid is confined between a heated bottom and a cooled top plate. Although this subject has a more than 100 year history in science, it is still one of the most actively investigated research topics in fluid dynamics.