On the heat transfer in Rayleigh-Bénard systems

In this paper we discuss some theoretical aspects concerning the scaling laws of the Nusselt number versus the Rayleigh number in a Rayleigh-Bénard cell. We present a new set of numerical simulations and compare our findings against the predictions of existing models. We then propose a new theory which relies on the hypothesis of Bolgiano scaling. Our approach generalizes the one proposed by Kadanoff, Libchaber, and coworkers and solves some of the inconsistencies raised in the recent literature.