Thermal Convection: Patterns, Evolution and Stability - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

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.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

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.

Aus dem Klappentext

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.