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This article deals with the thermal convection in a dielectric fluid confined in a finite-length plane capacitor with a temperature gradient under microgravity conditions. The dielectrophoretic force resulting from differential polarization of the fluid plays the role of buoyancy force associated with an electric effective gravity. It induces the convection when the Rayleigh number based on this electric gravity exceeds a critical value. Two-dimensional numerical simulation for a geometry with a large aspect ratio is used to determine the convective flow in the saturated state. The Nusselt number Nu is computed for a wide range of Prandtl number (0.01 ≤ Pr ≤ 10(3)) and its dependence on the distance from the critical condition is determined. A correlation between Nu and Pr in the vicinity of criticality is obtained and compared with that of the Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The behavior of the convection is analyzed in detail from an energetic viewpoint: electrostatic energy, power inputs by different components of the electric gravity and viscous and thermal dissipations are computed.

Spiral vortex flow in the counter-rotating Couette-Taylor system with a large aspect ratio and an intermediate gap has been investigated using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). From data of velocity components, we have determined nonlinear properties (anharmonicity, mirror symmetry, axial and radial flow rates) of spiral vortices and compared them to those of Taylor vortices. The velocity field around a spatio-temporal defect has been measured. There is a good agreement between these experimental results with available results from numerical simulations.