Abstract

Dynamics of Rayleigh-Benard convection in binary fluid mixture

Author(s): Lizhong Ning, Bibo Ning, Weili Tian, Yoshifumi Harada, Hideo Yahata

Convection in a thin, horizontal fluid layer heated from below is a typical model for studying nonlinear problem and chaos. The system is governed by the two-dimensional hydrodynamic equations. In this paper the SIMPLE algorithm was used to numerically solve the two-dimensional hydrodynamic equations of the coupled heat and concentration transfer as well as fluid flows. Our interest is focussed on the behavior of traveling wave convection along the nonlinear branch of subcritical bifurcation in a rectangular cell. Our simulation has reproduced the nonlinear phenomena observed in experiments such as counter-propagating wave (CPW), traveling wave (TW), localized traveling wave (LTW), undulation traveling wave (UTW) and stationary overturning convection (SOC) states appearing in the nonlinear branch of the subcritical bifurcation diagram and has interpreted their formation mechanism.