Countertraveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Ligang Li, Xinhao Liao, and Keke Zhang
Phys. Rev. E 77, 027301 – Published 14 February 2008

Abstract

Linear and nonlinear counter-traveling waves in a fluid-filled annular cylinder with realistic no-slip boundary conditions uniformly heated from below and rotating about a vertical axis are investigated. When the gap of the annular cylinder is moderate, there exist two three-dimensional traveling waves driven by convective instabilities: a retrograde mode localized near the outer sidewall and a prograde mode adjacent to the inner sidewall with a different wave number, frequency and critical Rayleigh number. It is found that the retrogradely propagating mode is always more unstable and is marked by a larger azimuthal wave number. When the Rayleigh number is sufficiently large, both the counter-traveling modes can be excited and nonlinearly interacting, leading to an unusual nonlinear phenomenon in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

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  • Received 13 November 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.77.027301

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Ligang Li1, Xinhao Liao1, and Keke Zhang2

  • 1Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, China
  • 2Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QE, United Kingdom

  • *jrt32@cam.ac.uk

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Vol. 77, Iss. 2 — February 2008

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