title: Intermittency of velocity fluctuations in turbulent thermal convection.
abstract: We analyze velocity fluctuations in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The velocity measurements were taken at the center of an aspect-ratio-one convection cell filled with water. The measured probability density functions of the velocity difference over a time interval tau are found to change with tau, indicating that the velocity fluctuations are intermittent. The velocity intermittency can be well characterized by the She-Leveque hierarchical structure. Our analyses further show that the vertical velocity component has distinct statistical features from the horizontal components. This result indicates that the vertical direction is special and buoyancy is important even at the center of the convection cell.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Emily S C
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Ching
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: X-L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tong