Onset of intermittent octahedral patterns in spherical Bénard convection

Nonlinear square patterns in Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Onset of coherent oscillations in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

We report temperature cross correlation and velocity profile measurements in the aspect-ratio-one convection cell filled with water. A sharp transition from a random chaotic state to a correlated turbulent state of finite coherence time is found when the Rayleigh number becomes larger than a critical value Ra(c) approximately equal to 5 x 10(7). The experiment reveals a unique mechanism for the...

Onset of Rayleigh-Bénard convection in cylindrical containers.

We determined the critical Rayleigh numbers Ra{c} for the onset of convection in cylindrical containers with aspect ratios 1 approximately <Gamma [ triple bond] D/L approximately <9 ( D is the diameter and L the height) and the patterns that form just above Ra{c}, both from experiment and by direct numerical simulation (DNS). Results for Ra{c} agree well with the linear stability analysis by Bu...

Stability of hexagonal patterns in Bénard-Marangoni convection.

Hexagonal patterns in Bénard-Marangoni (BM) convection are studied within the framework of amplitude equations. Near threshold they can be described with Ginzburg-Landau equations that include spatial quadratic terms. The planform selection problem between hexagons and rolls is investigated by explicitly calculating the coefficients of the Ginzburg-Landau equations in terms of the parameters of...

Convection patterns in a spherical fluid shell.

Symmetry-breaking bifurcations have been studied for convection in a nonrotating spherical shell whose outer radius is twice the inner radius, under the influence of an externally applied central force field with a radial dependence proportional to 1/r(5). This work is motivated by the GeoFlow experiment, which is performed under microgravity condition at the International Space Station where t...