Steady Rayleigh–Bénard convection between stress-free boundaries
Steady Rayleigh–Bénard convection between stress-free boundaries
Steady two-dimensional Rayleigh--B\'enard convection between stress-free isothermal boundaries is studied via numerical computations. We explore properties of steady convective rolls with aspect ratios $\pi/5\le\Gamma\le4\pi$, where $\Gamma$ is the width-to-height ratio for a pair of counter-rotating rolls, over eight orders of magnitude in the Rayleigh number, $10^3\le Ra\le10^{11}$, and four orders …