Correspondence between flow structures and heat transfer in regime transitions in turbulent rotating thermal convection

We experimentally investigate the relationship between heat transport and flow structures in rotating thermal convection. Our results, regarding the geometric and dynamic properties of columnar structures, demonstrate that the behaviors of heat transfer efficiency are intimately related to the changes in the coherent structures in the bulk flow. The sharper transitions of the flow field statistics suggest that, in future studies of regime transitions, flow field measurements may serve as a more definitive criterion than those based on heat transport behaviors.