Abstract
We report experimental results on the defect turbulent state of undulation chaos in inclined layer convection of a fluid with Prandtl number . By measuring defect density and undulation wave number, we find that the onset of undulation chaos coincides with the theoretically predicted onset for stable, stationary undulations. At stronger driving, we observe a competition between ordered undulations and undulation chaos, suggesting bistability between a fixed-point attractor and spatiotemporal chaos. In the defect turbulent regime, we measured the defect creation, annihilation, entering, leaving, and rates. We derive a universal probability distribution function which agrees with the experimental findings.
- Received 5 July 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.034501
©2002 American Physical Society