We report on the presence of the boundary zonal flow in rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection evidenced by two-dimensional particle image velocimetry. Experiments were conducted in a cylindrical cell of aspect ratio $\varGamma =D/H=1$ between its diameter ($D$) and height ($H$). As the working fluid, we used various mixtures of water and glycerol, leading to Prandtl numbers in the range $6.6 \lesssim \textit {Pr} \lesssim 76$. The horizontal velocity components were measured at a horizontal cross-section at half height. The Rayleigh numbers were in the range $10^8 \leq \textit {Ra} \leq 3\times 10^9$. The effect of rotation is quantified by the Ekman number, which was in the range $1.5\times 10^{-5}\leq \textit {Ek} \leq 1.2\times 10^{-3}$ in our experiment. With our results we show the first direct measurements of the boundary zonal flow (BZF) that develops near the sidewall and was discovered recently in numerical simulations as well as in sparse and localized temperature measurements. We analyse the thickness $\delta _0$ of the BZF as well as its maximal velocity as a function of Pr, Ra and Ek, and compare these results with previous results from direct numerical simulations.

We report on turbulent thermal convection experiments in a rotating cylinder with a diameter ($D$) to height ($H$) aspect ratio of $\varGamma =D/H=0.5$. Using nitrogen and pressurised sulphur hexafluoride we cover Rayleigh numbers (Ra) from $8\times 10^{9}$ to $8\times 10^{14}$ at Prandtl numbers $0.72\lesssim {\textit {Pr}}\lesssim 0.94$. For these Ra we measure the global vertical heat flux (i.e. the Nusselt number – Nu), as well as statistical quantities of local temperature measurements, as a function of the rotation rate, i.e. the inverse Rossby number – 1/Ro. In contrast to measurements in fluids with a higher Pr we do not find a heat transport enhancement, but only a decrease of Nu with increasing 1/Ro. When normalised with Nu(0) for the non-rotating system, data for all different Ra collapse and, for sufficiently large 1/Ro, follow a power law ${\textit {Nu}}/{\textit {Nu}}_0\propto (1/{\textit {Ro}})^{-0.43}$. Furthermore, we find that both the heat transport and the temperature field qualitatively change at rotation rates $1/{\textit {Ro}}^*_1=0.8$ and $1/{\textit {Ro}}^*_2=4$. We interpret the first transition at $1/{\textit {Ro}}^*_1$ as change from a large-scale circulation roll to the recently discovered boundary zonal flow (BZF). The second transition at rotation rate $1/{\textit {Ro}}^*_2$ is not associated with a change of the flow morphology, but is rather the rotation rate for which the BZF is at its maximum. For faster rotation the vertical transport of warm and cold fluid near the sidewall within the BZF decreases and hence so does Nu.