title: Nusselt number measurements for turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection.
abstract: We present high-precision measurements of the Nusselt number N as a function of the Rayleigh number R for a cylindrical sample of water (Prandtl number sigma=4.4) of height L approximately equal to 50 cm and aspect ratio Gamma identical with D/L approximately equal to 1 (D is the diameter) for 3 x 10(9)< or =R< or =6 x 10(10). For R approximately 3 x 10(9) the data are consistent with existing results for acetone (sigma=4.0, R< or =3 x 10(9)). There the measurements are also consistent with a model by Grossmann and Lohse (GL). As R increases, the measurements fall below the GL prediction. Near R=6 x 10(10) the prediction is 8% above the data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and iQUEST, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nikolaenko
authors.forename: Guenter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ahlers