%0 Journal Article
%T Kinetic study of the Rayleigh-B¨Śnard flows
%A Jun Zhang
%A Jing Fan
%J Chinese Science Bulletin
%@ 1861-9541
%D 2009
%I 
%R 10.1007/s11434-008-0546-4
%X The present paper employs the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method to study the Rayleigh-B¨Śnard flows, where the temperature ratio of the upper to lower plate is fixed to 0.1. For a Knudsen number (Kn) of 0.01, as the Rayleigh number (Ra) increases, the flow changes from the thermal conductive state to the convective state at about Ra=1700, and the calculated relation of heat flux through the lower plate versus Ra is in good agreement with classical experimental and theoretical results. For Kn=0.05, the thermal conductive state remains stable, and the increase of Ra cannot trigger thermal instability.
%K Rayleigh-B¨Śnard flows
%K thermal convection
%K critical Rayleigh number
%K rarefied gas effect
%K DSMC
%U http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11434-008-0546-4