Nonlinear Control of Remote Unstable States in a Liquid Bridge Convection Experiment

We demonstrate the stabilization of unstable periodic orbits whose trajectories in phase space are distant from the unperturbed dynamics in a convective flow experiment. A model independent, nonlinear control algorithm uses temperature measurements near the free surface of a convecting liquid bridge to compute control perturbations which are applied by a thermoelectric element. The algorithm employs a time series reconstruction of a nonlinear control surface to alter the system dynamics.