IIT Kanpur is delighted to share that a research paper from the group of Prof. Mahendra K. Verma, Department of Physics, has been published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The study offers groundbreaking insights into the mechanisms of thermal convection, which efficiently transports heat in astrophysical and engineering flows. Conventionally, hot plumes are expected to ascend and cold plumes to descend, resulting in a positive heat flux. However, the PNAS paper by Tiwari et al. presents compelling evidence that, in turbulent convection, the upper boundary can deflect hot plumes downward, thereby inducing a negative flux.

The study further reveals that the difference between the positive and negative heat fluxes decreases with the Rayleigh number, yielding the classical Nusselt number scaling that matches the experimental findings. This work indicates a likely absence of the “ultimate regime” in turbulent convection. These subtle features of heat flux help resolve a long-standing problem in understanding heat transport in turbulent convection.

This remarkable achievement highlights IIT Kanpur’s commitment to advancing cutting-edge research and contributing to global scientific understanding.

Heartiest congratulations to Prof. Mahendra K. Verma and his research team on this distinguished publication and their continued pursuit of excellence in fundamental physics.

🔗 Read the paper here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nKEuBQMg3rh-m6D3-z2QEUdQIdjD5QNy/view