Thermal Convection

Thermal Convection - Patterns, Stages of Evolution and Stability
Behavior provides the reader with an ensemble picture of the
subject, illustrating the state-of-the-art and providing the
researchers from universities and industry with a basis on which
they are able to estimate the possible impact of a variety of
parameters. Unlike earlier books on the subject, the heavy
mathematical background underlying and governing the behaviors
illustrated in the text are kept to a minimum.

The text clarifies some still unresolved controversies
pertaining to the physical nature of the dominating driving force
responsible for asymmetric/oscillatory convection in various
natural phenomena and/or technologically important processes and
can help researchers in elaborating and validating new, more
complex models, in accelerating the current trend towards
predictable and reproducible natural phenomena and in establishing
an adequate scientific foundation to industrial processes.

Thermal Convection - Patterns, Stages of Evolution and
Stability Behavior is intended as a useful reference guide for
specialists in disciplines such as the metallurgy and foundry field
and researchers and scientists who are now coordinating their
efforts to improve the quality of semiconductor or macromolecular
crystals. The text may also be of use to organic chemists and
materials scientists, atmosphere and planetary physicists, as well
as an advanced level text for students taking part in courses on
the physics of fluids, fluid mechanics, the behavior and evolution
of non-linear systems, environmental phenomena and materials
engineering.

Auteur

Dr. Marcello Lappa is Senior Researcher at the Microgravity Advanced Research and Support Center. He has approximately 100 publications (the majority as a single author) in the fields of fluid motion and stability behavior (thermogravitational, thermocapillary, thermovibrational and magnetic convection), organic and inorganic materials sciences and crystal growth, multiphase flows, solidification, biotechnology and biomechanics, methods of numerical analysis in computational fluid dynamics and heat/mass transfer, high performance computing (parallel machines). He is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Fluid Dynamics and Materials Processing (ISSN 1555-256X). He has worked as a visiting scientist and professor at the Institute for Materials Chemistry and Engineering - Division of Advanced Device Materials in Japan (Kyushu University). Over recent years he has been involved in many industrial projects and, in particular, in the preparation of the ground and flight operations for the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL) that will operate on-orbit within the Columbus Module of the International Space Station by the half of 2008.

Texte du rabat
Thermal Convection: Patterns, Evolution and Stability Marcello Lappa

This volume presents a critical, focused and 'comparative' study of different types of thermal convection typically encountered in natural or technological contexts (thermogravitational, thermocapillary and thermovibrational).

A significant effort is provided to illustrate their genesis, the governing nondimensional parameters, the scaling properties, their structure and, in particular, the stability behaviour and the possible bifurcations to different patterns of symmetry and/or spatiotemporal regimes.

Such flows are considered in various geometrical (finite and infinite) models, under various heating conditions, for different fluids (liquid metals, molten salts and semiconductors, gases, water, oils, many organic and inorganic transparent liquids, etc.) and possible combinations of all these variants. Significant attention is given to 'hybrid' cases in which fluid motion is driven by more than one driving force (mixed convection) as well as to the interaction with magnetic fields.

This book:

• illustrates the state-of-the-art (together with relevant historical background) about convective phenomena of thermal origin in homogeneous fluids;
• includes a critical derivation of fundamental concepts, equations, mathematical models and methods of analysis;
• provides researchers from universities and industry with a basis on which they are able to estimate the possible impact of a variety of parameters;
• presents experimental and numerical examples specifically conceived for a better understanding of fluid flow mechanisms considered;
• clarifies the physical nature of the dominating driving force responsible for asymmetric/oscillatory convection in various natural phenomena and/or technologically important processes.
  Thus, this book is an ideal reference for physicists and engineers, as well as an important resource for advanced students taking courses on the physics of fluids, fluid mechanics, behaviour of nonlinear systems, environmental phenomena, meteorology, geophysics, thermal and materials engineering.

Résumé
Thermal Convection - Patterns, Stages of Evolution and Stability Behavior provides the reader with an ensemble picture of the subject, illustrating the state-of-the-art and providing the researchers from universities and industry with a basis on which they are able to estimate the possible impact of a variety of parameters. Unlike earlier books on the subject, the heavy mathematical background underlying and governing the behaviors illustrated in the text are kept to a minimum. The text clarifies some still unresolved controversies pertaining to the physical nature of the dominating driving force responsible for asymmetric/oscillatory convection in various natural phenomena and/or technologically important processes and can help researchers in elaborating and validating new, more complex models, in accelerating the current trend towards predictable and reproducible natural phenomena and in establishing an adequate scientific foundation to industrial processes.

Thermal Convection - Patterns, Stages of Evolution and Stability Behavior is intended as a useful reference guide for specialists in disciplines such as the metallurgy and foundry field and researchers and scientists who are now coordinating their efforts to improve the quality of semiconductor or macromolecular crystals. The text may also be of use to organic chemists and materials scientists, atmosphere and planetary physicists, as well as an advanced level text for students taking part in courses on the physics of fluids, fluid mechanics, the behavior and evolution of non-linear systems, environmental phenomena and materials engineering.

Contenu
Preface. Acknowledgements.

1 Equations, General Concepts and Methods of Analysis.

1.1 Pattern Formation and Nonlinear Dynamics.

1.2 The NavierStokes Equations.

1.3 Energy Equality and Dissipative Structures.

1.4 Flow Stability, Bifurcations and Transition to Chaos.

1.5 Linear Stability Analysis: Principles and Methods.

1.6 Energy Stability Theory.

1.7 Numerical Integration of the NavierStokes Equations.

1.8 Some Universal Properties of Chaotic States.

1.9 The Maxwell Equations.

2 Classical Models, Characteristic Numbers and Scaling Arguments.

2.1 Buoyancy Convection and the Boussinesq Model.

2.2 Convection in Space.

2.3 Marangoni Flow.

2.4 Exact Solutions of the NavierStokes Equations for Thermal Problems.

2.5 Conductive, Transition and Boundary-layer Regimes.

3 Examples of Thermal Fluid Convection and Pattern Formation in Nature and Technology.

3.1 Technological Processes: Small-scale Laboratory and Industrial Setups.

3.2 Examples of Thermal Fluid Convection and Pattern Formation at the Mesoscale.

3.3 Planetary Structure and Dynamics: Convective Phenomena.

3.4 Atmospheric and Oceanic Phenomena.

4 Thermogravitational Convection: The RayleighBénard Problem.

4.1 N…