Convection in Internally Heated Fluid Layers. Part A: Bifurcation Analysis

摘要

A strictly hexagonal convection flow in an electrolytically heated fluid layer is found to be inconsistent with the rectangular pattern of the oriented electric field. In agreement with experiments any hexagonal motion must be expected to be more or less disturbed by the uneven internal heating. A Lyapunov-Schmidt analysis resulted in a comprehensive display of the bifurcation phenomenon. An intrinsic resonance mechanism between the coupled linear and nonlinear forces introduces a natural discretization which seems to determine the physically preferred mode. (Author)