FM7L_12168:Tue:1840:226
XXI International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
Warsaw, Poland, August 15-21, 2004

Nonlinear Convective Patterns in Spherical Rayleigh - Benard Systems

Xinhao Liao (1), Keke Zhang (1)
1. Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
2. School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Exeter, UK


Nonlinear thermal convection in a spherical fluid layer in the presence of spherically symmetric gravity, spherical Rayleigh-Benard convection, is investigated. At the onset of spherical Rayleigh-Benard convection, there exists the (2l+1)-fold degeneracy of the linear solution, where l is the degree of a spherical harmonics. Nonlinear convection is studied through fully three-dimensional numerical simulations. Several new spherical patterns of nonlinear convection are found. In particular, a steadily drifting pattern in the form of a single giant spiral roll covering the whole spherical surface without defects is discovered for various Prandtl numbers for the first time.



Extended Summary (PDF)

BACK