1993/05/25 by Stephen W. Morris, Eberhard Bodenschatz, David S. Cannell +1 · 4 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Fluid Dynamics and Thin Films #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Theoretical and Computational Physics #chao-dyn #nlin.CD #nlin.PS #patt-sol
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.71.2026
Preprint of experimental paper submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. May 12 1993. Text is preceeded by many TeX macros. Figures 1 and 2 are rather long
arxiv created 1993/05/25 · openalex publication_date 1993/09/27 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report experiments on convection patterns in a cylindrical cell with a large aspect ratio. The fluid had a Prandtl number \ensuremathσ\ensuremath\approxeq1. We observed a chaotic pattern consisting of many rotating spirals and other defects in the parameter range where theory predicts that steady straight rolls should be stable. The correlation length of the pattern decreased rapidly with increasing control parameter so that the size of a correlated area became much smaller than the area of the cell. This suggests that the chaotic behavior is intrinsic to large aspect ratio geometries.