Thermal convection studies at the University of Minnesota

This chapter presents an overview of numerous pioneering studies on thermal convection conducted in the Heat Transfer Laboratory at the University of Minnesota over the last six decades. The Heat Transfer Laboratory at the University of Minnesota is notably known for their experimental and analytical contributions in the field of Rayleigh-Benard convection. This chapter will therefore primarily deal with turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection research at the University of Minnesota. Other topics covered in this chapter include critical Rayleigh number for onset of fluid motion, laminar-to-turbulent regime transitions, thermal convection with volumetric energy sources, and thermal convection in coarse-grained porous media. This chapter will also be discussing some of the very relevant and fundamental research conducted by other groups across the globe pertaining tomost of the discussed topics to help the reader better comprehend the presented results. The chapter will conclude by identifying prospective research directions in the field of thermal convection.