Different types of nonlinear convective oscillations in a multilayer system under the joint action of buoyancy and thermocapillary effect

The nonlinear development of oscillatory instability under the joint action of buoyant and thermocapillary effects in a multilayer system, is investigated. The nonlinear convective regimes are studied by the finite difference method. Two different types of boundary conditions – periodic boundary conditions and rigid heat-insulated lateral walls, are considered. It is found that in the case of periodic boundary conditions, the competition of both mechanisms of instability may lead to the development of specific types of flow: buoyant-thermocapillary traveling wave and pulsating traveling wave. In the case of rigid heat-insulated boundaries, various types of nonlinear flows – symmetric and asymmetric oscillations, have been found.     

Nonlinear dynamics of convection patterns in a binary mixture subjected to finite-frequency vibration

Nonlinear evolution of two-dimensional convection patterns is considered for an incompressible binary mixture with negative Soret coupling in a horizontal layer subjected to finite-frequency vertical vibration of arbitrary amplitude. A numerical analysis is performed under impermeability conditions on rigid boundaries, which can be implemented in a laboratory experiment. The dependence of flow intensity on vibration amplitude is examined for the first and second resonance regions in the parameter space of thermal vibrational convection. The numerical results agree with the stability boundaries of equilibrium states predicted by linear theory. A qualitative difference in the dynamics of nonlinear oscillation is exposed between the regions corresponding to critical perturbations at the subharmonic and fundamental frequencies. Regular and chaotic dynamics, as well as hysteretic transitions between the fundamental and subharmonic modes, are revealed.     

Vibrational convection of a binary mixture in connected channels

The influence of high-frequency vibrations on the thermal convection of a binary mixture in connected channels is investigated theoretically. The oscillatory and stationary convective flows are calculated using the finite difference method in combination with the Galerkin procedure. Numerical simulation has revealed that the vertical vibrations substantially affect the threshold of convection and different characteristics of the supercritical regimes.     

Convective instability of the thermovibrational flow of binary mixture in the presence of the Soret effect

The convective instability of the thermovibration flow in a plane horizontal layer filled with an incompressible binary gaseous mixture is investigated. The study takes into account the effect of thermal diffusion or the Ludwig-Soret effect. Several instability mechanisms are discussed. To determine the instability threshold with respect to cell and long-wave perturbations, the Floquet theory was applied to the linearized equations of convection formulated in the Boussinesq approximation. We found that regime parametric instability can occur owing to the finite frequency vibrations. The evolution of plane, spiral and three-dimensional disturbances is studied. We demonstrated that, because of the properties of the system, the subharmonic response of plane disturbances to the external periodic action cannot be observed. The instability can be associated only with synchronous or quasiperiodic modes. Depending on the vibration parameters, modulations can stabilize or destabilize the base state. For spiral perturbations the stability boundary does not depend on the amplitude and frequency of vibrations. In the case of long-wave instability we apply the regular perturbation approach with the wavenumber as a small parameter in power expansions. The stability boundaries are found.     

Shear waves in a resonator with cubic nonlinearity

Shear waves with finite amplitude in a one-dimensional resonator in the form of a layer of a rubber-like medium with a rigid plate of finite mass at the upper surface of the layer are investigated. The lower boundary of the layer oscillates according to a harmonic law with a preset acceleration. The equation of motion for particles in a resonator is determined using a model of a medium with a single relaxation time and cubical dependence of the shear modulus on deformation. The amplitude and form of shear waves in a resonator are calculated numerically by the finite difference method at shifted grids. Resonance curves are obtained at different acceleration amplitudes at the lower boundary of a layer. It is demonstrated that, as the oscillation amplitude in the resonator grows, the value of the resonance frequency increases and the shape of the resonance curve becomes asymmetrical. At sufficiently large amplitudes, a bistability region is observed. Measurements were conducted with a resonator, where a layer with the thickness of 15 mm was manufactured of a rubber-like polymer called plastisol. The shear modulus of the polymer at small deformations and the nonlinearity coefficient were determined according to the experimental dependence of mechanical stress on shear deformation. Oscillation amplitudes in the resonator attained values when the maximum shear deformations in the layer were 0.4–0.6, which provided an opportunity to observe nonlinear effects. Measured dependences of the resonance frequency on the oscillation amplitude corresponded to the calculated ones that were obtained at a smaller value of the nonlinear coefficient.     

Transitional regimes of penetrative convection in a plain layer

Penetrative convection in a plain layer of water is considered for the interval of temperatures containing the point of density maximum. When the unstable and stable layers are equal in the static conductive state, the development of convective instability is investigated from the formation of steady structures to chaotic motion. Scales of the periodicity cell for regimes with a strong nonlinear effect were chosen with particular attention. Specifics are shown for steady structures with small-scale vortices near upper boundaries and for periodic motions with synchronized oscillations of the lower parts of vertically elongated profiles of temperature that move symmetrically. With the increase of supercriticality, the motion loses reflection symmetry, becomes doubly periodic, and finally becomes quasi-periodic before transition to chaotic motion. Domains of hysteresis are investigated for which motions with different structure and heat fluxes coexist, and it is illustrated by the dependence of the Nusselt number on supercriticallity.     

Inhibition of light tunneling in chirped and longitudinally modulated semi-infinite waveguide arrays

The inhibition of light tunneling in chirped and longitudinally modulated semi-infinite waveguide arrays where the refractive index is linearly modulated in the transverse direction and harmonically modulated along the light propagation direction is considered. We report on the effect of the refractive index transverse amplitude modulation rate, longitudinal modulation frequency and depth on tunneling inhibition in both linear and nonlinear regimes. We show that in the linear regime an optimal value for the transverse amplitude modulation rate of refractive index exists and can determine the optimal longitudinal modulation frequency or depth leading to a maximum of distance-averaged power fraction. In the nonlinear regime the tunneling inhibition dynamics is affected dramatically by the transverse amplitude modulation rate and the associated electric field amplitude of the input beam.     

Chaotic Oscillations in a Nonlinear Lumped-Parameter Transmission Line

We present the results of numerical simulation of the complex dynamics of a nonlinear radio-technical line having reflections at the boundaries and excited by an external harmonic signal. It is shown that, with increase in the amplitude of the input signal, periodic oscillations at the external-forcing frequency become unstable and are changed to more complex regimes, either quasiperiodic or chaotic. The main scenarios of transition to chaos are studied. The influence of the modulation instability and soliton formation on the complex dynamics is discussed.     

Origination and evolution of turbulent flows in a rotating spherical layer

The object of consideration is the turbulent flows of a viscous incompressible liquid that arises in a wide spherical layer with counter-rotating boundaries (the thickness of the layer equals the radius of the inner sphere). Regimes established when the outer sphere rotates with a constant velocity and the inner one rotates with an increasing velocity are studied in physical and numerical experiments. The averaged meridional circulation and the pulsation profiles of all velocity components are derived by direct calculation. It is found that both observed and simulated turbulent regimes are characterized by the continuous spectrum of velocity pulsation near their formation boundary. In going from the laminar to chaotic regime, the correlation dimension increases stepwise and then slightly varies with increasing Reynolds number in a nonlinear manner.     

Electroconvection under injection from cathode and heating from above

We study the electroconvection that appears in a nonuniformly heated, poorly conducting liquid in a parallel-plate horizontal capacitor due to the action of an external static electric field on the charge injected from the cathode. It is shown that the heating of the layer from above prevents steady-state convection and that, unlike the isothermal situation, electroconvection can appear in the oscillatory manner as a result of direct Hopf bifurcation. The effect of the heating intensity, the intensity of charge injection from the cathode, and the charge mobility on the thresholds of oscillatory and monotonic electroconvection is analyzed and the characteristic scales and frequencies of critical perturbations are determined. The nonlinear wave and steady-state regimes of the 2D convective structures formed in the poorly conducting liquid under the action of thermogravitational and injection mechanisms of convection are analyzed. The domains of existence of standing, traveling, and modulated waves are determined.     

Experimental evidence of absolute and convective instabilities in optics

Experimental evidence of convective and absolute instabilities in a nonlinear optical system is given. In optics, the presence of spatial nonuniformities brings in additional complexity. Hence, signatures characterizing these two regimes are derived based on analytical and numerical investigations. The corresponding noise-sustained and dynamical patterns are observed experimentally in a liquid crystal layer subjected to a laser beam with tilted feedback.     

Convective heat transport in a fluid layer of infinite Prandtl number: upper bounds for the case of rigid lower boundary and stress-free upper boundary

We present the theory of the multi--solutions of the variational problem for the upper bounds on the convective heat transport in a heated from below horizontal fluid layer with rigid lower boundary and stress-free upper boundary. A sequence of upper bounds on the convective heat transport is obtained. The highest bound is between the bounds for the case of a fluid layer with two rigid boundaries and for the case of a fluid layer with two stress-free boundaries. As an additional result of the presented theory we obtain small corrections of the boundary layer thicknesses of the optimum fields for the case of fluid layer with two rigid boundaries. These corrections lead to systematically lower upper bounds on the convective heat transport in comparison to the bounds obtained in [5]. Received 29 September 1999     

On the parametric excitation of electrothermal instability in a dielectric liquid layer using an alternating electric field

The onset of electrothermal convective instability of a liquid dielectric subjected to an unsteady electric field is studied in the EHD approximation, when charge formation is produced only due to dielectrophoresis. Convective thresholds are found in two different cases: (i) instability of the liquid equilibrium in a horizontal layer, and (ii) instability of the liquid flow in a vertical layer. The stability boundaries are obtained when there is interaction of dielectrophoretic and gravitational forces. Stability plots of electrical Rayleigh number versus thermal Rayleigh number are given. We show that only synchronous response to variations of the external electric field of finite frequency exists when heating a horizontal layer from above. Quasiperiodic response to the external alternating action is possible in the case of a vertical layer. The influence of the Prandtl number on the stability thresholds is also examined. The asymptotic behavior of the critical parameters in the limiting case of low-frequency modulation is studied using the Wentzel–Kramers–Brillouin method.     

Nonlinear periodic waves on the charged surface of a finite-thickness ideal liquid layer

In the fourth order of smallness in the amplitude of a periodic capillary-gravitational wave travelling over the uniformly charged free surface of an ideal incompressible conducting liquid of a finite depth, analytical expressions for the evolution of the nonlinear wave, velocity field potential of the liquid, electrostatic field potential above the liquid, and nonlinear frequency correction that is quadratic in a small parameter are derived. It is found that the dependence of the amplitude of the nonlinear correction to the frequency on the charge density on the free liquid surface and on the thickness of the liquid layer changes qualitatively when the layer gets thinner. In thin liquid layers, the resonant wavenumber depends on the surface charge density, while in thick layers, this dependence is absent.     

Upper bound on the heat transport in a layer of fluid of infinite prandtl number, rigid lower boundary, and stress-free upper boundary

We obtain an upper bound on the convective heat transport in a heated from below horizontal fluid layer of infinite Prandtl number with rigid lower boundary and stress-free upper boundary. Because of the asymmetric boundary conditions the solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations of the corresponding variational problem are also asymmetric with different thicknesses of the boundary layers on the upper and lower boundary of the fluid. The obtained bound on the convective heat transport and the corresponding wave number are between the values for a fluid layer with two rigid boundaries and a fluid layer with two stress-free boundaries.     

Nonlinear frequency mixing in a resonant cavity: Numerical simulations in a bubbly liquid

The study of nonlinear frequency mixing for acoustic standing waves in a resonator cavity is presented. Two high frequencies are mixed in a highly nonlinear bubbly liquid filled cavity that is resonant at the difference frequency. The analysis is carried out through numerical experiments, and both linear and nonlinear regimes are compared. The results show highly efficient generation of the difference frequency at high excitation amplitude. The large acoustic nonlinearity of the bubbly liquid that is responsible for the strong difference-frequency resonance also induces significant enhancement of the parametric frequency mixing effect to generate second harmonic of the difference frequency.     

Large-scale Marangoni convection in a liquid layer with insoluble surfactant of low concentration

We derive a system of amplitude equations describing the evolution of a large-scale Marangoni patterns in a liquid layer with poorly conducting boundaries in the presence of a small amount of an insoluble surfactant on the free flat interface. The presence of quadratic nonlinear terms in the amplitude equation leads to the selection of hexagonal patterns. The type of hexagons bifurcating into the subcritical region, depends on the parameters of the system.     

An efficient flexible-order model for 3D nonlinear water waves

The flexible-order, finite difference based fully nonlinear potential flow model described in [H.B. Bingham, H. Zhang, On the accuracy of finite difference solutions for nonlinear water waves, J. Eng. Math. 58 (2007) 211–228] is extended to three dimensions (3D). In order to obtain an optimal scaling of the solution effort multigrid is employed to precondition a GMRES iterative solution of the discretized Laplace problem. A robust multigrid method based on Gauss–Seidel smoothing is found to require special treatment of the boundary conditions along solid boundaries, and in particular on the sea bottom. A new discretization scheme using one layer of grid points outside the fluid domain is presented and shown to provide convergent solutions over the full physical and discrete parameter space of interest. Linear analysis of the fundamental properties of the scheme with respect to accuracy, robustness and energy conservation are presented together with demonstrations of grid independent iteration count and optimal scaling of the solution effort. Calculations are made for 3D nonlinear wave problems for steep nonlinear waves and a shoaling problem which show good agreement with experimental measurements and other calculations from the literature.