Convection of liquid with internal heat release in a rotating container

The convection of heat-generating fluid in a rotating horizontal cylinder is experimentally investigated. The threshold of convection excitation, the structure of convective flows and the heat transfer in the cylinder depending on the heat release capacity, liquid viscosity and aspect ratio of the cavity are studied. It is found that the average convection is excited by the thermovibrational mechanism —the gravity force, rotating in the cavity frame, produces the oscillations of non-isothermal fluid relative to the wall, which in turn result in excitation of mean convective flows. It is shown that the structure of convective flows depends on the dimensionless velocity of rotation. At relatively low rotation velocity the convection develops in the form of a periodic system of vortices regularly distributed along the cylinder axis. The threshold of excitation (critical value of vibration parameter) of three-dimensional vortex structures grows with rotation velocity. Above some definite rotation velocity the convection develops as two-dimensional rolls parallel to the axis of rotation. The threshold of two-dimensional structures excitation does not depend on the rotation velocity. Besides the structure of thermal convective flows the analysis of the relatively weak currents generated by the inertial waves below the threshold of convection is performed.