High–Rayleigh number convective turbulence is ubiquitous in many natural phenomena and in industries, such as atmospheric circulations, oceanic flows, flows in the fluid core of planets, and energy generations. In this talk, we will discuss our recent progresses on the study of convective turbulence using experimental and numerical approaches. In the first work, we present a novel approach to boost the Rayleigh number in thermal convection by exploiting centrifugal acceleration and rapidly rotating a cylindrical annulus to reach an effective gravity of 60 times Earth’s gravity. In the second work, we discuss a numerical study of thermal convection through random porous media using pore-scale modelling, focusing on the Lagrangian dynamics of fluid particles and heat transfer for varied porosities. In the third work, we combine experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical modelling to investigate how the growth of lake ice depends on the fluid dynamics underneath. We will show some perspectives for future research on this topic.

Chao Sun is a Professor at the Center for Combustion Energy, the Department of Energy and Power Engineering, and the Department of Engineering Mechanics at Tsinghua University. His research interests include multiphase flows and High-Reynolds number turbulence. He has authored more than 130 publications in refereed scientific journals, including Annual Reviews, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Physical Review Letters, and Nature/Science Sister Journals. He was a keynote speaker for the 15th European Turbulence Conference and a plenary lecturer for the 10th International Conference on Multiphase Flow. He serves as an Associate Editor of ‘International Journal of Multiphase Flow’, an Editor of ‘Journal of Turbulence’, an Editorial Advisory Board member of ‘Experiments in Fluids’, and a Governing Board member of the International Conference on Multiphase Flow.