RESUMEN
The transition to the chaos of the air flow between two vertical plates maintained at different temperatures is studied in the Boussinesq approximation. After the first bifurcation at critical Rayleigh number Ra_{c}, the flow consists of two-dimensional (2D) corotating rolls. The stability of the 2D rolls is examined, confronting linear predictions with nonlinear integration. In all cases the 2D rolls are destabilized in the spanwise direction. Efficient linear stability analysis based on an Arnoldi method shows competition between two eigenmodes, corresponding to different spanwise wavelengths and different types of roll distortion. Nonlinear integration shows that the lower-wave-number mode is always dominant. A partial route to chaos is established through the nonlinear simulations. The flow becomes temporally chaotic for Ra=1.05Ra_{c}, but remains characterized by the spatial patterns identified by linear stability analysis. This highlights the complementary role of linear stability analysis and nonlinear simulation.
RESUMEN
Direct numerical simulation is used to study the air flow between two vertical plates maintained at different temperatures. The periodic dimensions of the plates are small so as to accommodate only one flow structure, which consists of a convection roll with oblique vorticity braids. At lower Rayleigh numbers, the roll and the braids grow and shrink alternatively following a cyclical process. As the Rayleigh number is increased, the flow becomes temporally chaotic through a period-doubling cascade. Windows corresponding to multiperiodic regimes and interior crises are observed. As the Rayleigh number is further increased, the structure intermittently switches between two vertical positions, which is seen to correspond to an "attractor-merging" crisis. The chaotic flow dynamics are characterized and the corresponding physical mechanisms are identified. We show that some of the flow key features, such as the chaotic oscillation and intermittency, can be captured by a low-order model.
RESUMEN
Natural convection of air between two infinite vertical differentially heated plates is studied analytically in two dimensions (2D) and numerically in two and three dimensions (3D) for Rayleigh numbers Ra up to 3 times the critical value Ra(c)=5708. The first instability is a supercritical circle pitchfork bifurcation leading to steady 2D corotating rolls. A Ginzburg-Landau equation is derived analytically for the flow around this first bifurcation and compared with results from direct numerical simulation (DNS). In two dimensions, DNS shows that the rolls become unstable via a Hopf bifurcation. As Ra is further increased, the flow becomes quasiperiodic, and then temporally chaotic for a limited range of Rayleigh numbers, beyond which the flow returns to a steady state through a spatial modulation instability. In three dimensions, the rolls instead undergo another pitchfork bifurcation to 3D structures, which consist of transverse rolls connected by counter-rotating vorticity braids. The flow then becomes time dependent through a Hopf bifurcation, as exchanges of energy occur between the rolls and the braids. Chaotic behavior subsequently occurs through two competing mechanisms: a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations leading to intermittency or a spatial pattern modulation reminiscent of the Eckhaus instability.