Abstract
We study nonlinear traveling-wave (TW) and stationary states of convection in experiments in ethanol-water mixtures. While the TW phase velocity as a function of Rayleigh number has been recently shown to be in agreement with the predictions of theory and numerical calculations, we find that this velocity is temporally modulated at frequencies corresponding to the travel time of a single convection roll and of a roll pair past a point stationary in the convection cell. This modulation could be due to the pinning of the convection pattern by experimental inhomogeneities. For large Rayleigh numbers where stationary overturning convection is expected, we sometimes observe extremely slow unidirectional TW states. For larger Rayleigh numbers, this slow TW state starts and stops intermittently on a characteristic time scale of several days. The possible origin of these phenomena and their potential utility are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. Doolen, R. Ecke, D. Holm, and V. Steinberg, eds., Proceedings of the Conference on Advances in Fluid Turbulence,Physica D 37 (1989), and references therein.
M. C. Cross, Non-linear traveling wave states in finite geometries,Physica D 37:315 (1989).
D. Bensimon, A. Pumir, and B. I. Shraiman, Nonlinear theory of traveling wave convection in binary mixtures,J. Phys. (Paris)50:3089 (1989).
W. Barten, M. Lücke, and M. Kamps, Structure and dynamics of nonlinear convective states in binary fluid mixtures, inNonlinear Evolution of Spatio-Temporal Structures, NATO ASI Series B2, Vol. 225, F. H. Busse and L. Kramer, eds. (Plenum Press, New York, 1990), p. 131.
D. R. Ohlsen, S. Y. Yamamoto, C. M. Surko, and P. Kolodner, Transition from traveling-wave to stationary convection in fluid mixtures,Phys. Rev. Lett. 65:1431 (1990).
P. Kolodner, H. Williams, and C. Moe, Optical measurement of the Soret coefficient of ethanol/water solutions,J. Chem. Phys. 88:6512 (1988).
P. Kolodner and H. Williams, Complex demodulation techniques for experiments on traveling-wave convection, inNonlinear Evolution of Spatio-Temporal Structures, NATO ASI Series B2, Vol. 225, F. H. Busse and L. Kramer, eds. (Plenum Press, New York, 1990), p. 73.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ohlsen, D.R., Yamamoto, S.Y., Surko, C.M. et al. Pinning and long-time-scale behavior in traveling-wave convection. J Stat Phys 64, 903–912 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048803
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01048803