High-precision measurements of the Nusselt number Nu for Rayleigh-B6nard （RB） convection have been made in rectangular cells of water （Prandtl number Pr ≈ 5 and 7） with aspect ratios （F~, Fy） varying between （1, 0.3） and （20.8, 6.3）. For each cell the data cover a range of a little over a decade of Rayleigh number Ra and for all cells they jointly span the range 6x105 〈 Ra 〈1011. The two implicit equations of the Grossmann-Lohse （GL） model together with the empirical finite conductivity cor- rection factorf（X） were fitted to obtain estimates of Nu∞ in the presence of perfectly conducting plates, and the obtained Nu∞ is independent of the cells＇ aspect ratios. A combination of two-power-law, Nu∞= O.025Ra0.357＋O.525Ra0.168, can be used to de- scribe Nu∞（Ra）. The fitted exponents 0.357 and 0.168 are respectively close to the predictions 1/3 and 1/5 of the 11μ. and 1Vμ re- gimes of the GL model. Furthermore, a clear transition from the II. regime to the IVμ regime with increasing Ra is revealed.
Streamwise evolution of longitudinal and transverse velocity structure functions in a decaying homogeneous and nearly isotropic turbulence is reported for Reynolds numbers Reλ up to 720. First, two theoretical relations between longitudinal and transverse structure functions are examined in the light of recently derived relations and the results show that the low-order transverse structure functions can be well approximated by longitudinal ones within the sub-inertial range. Reconstruction of fourth-order transverse structure functions with a recently proposed relation by Grauer et al. is comparatively less valid than the relation already proposed by Antonia et al. Secondly, extended self-similarity methods are used to measure the scaling exponents up to order eight and the streamwise evolution of scaling exponents is explored. The scaling exponents of longitudinal structure functions are, at first location, close to Zybin's model, and at the fourth location, close to She–Leveque model. No obvious trend is found for the streamwise evolution of longitudinal scaling exponents, whereas, on the contrary, transverse scaling exponents become slightly smaller with the development of a steamwise direction. Finally, the stremwise variation of the order-dependent isotropy ratio indicates the turbulence at the last location is closer to isotropic than the other three locations.
