Core Dynamics of Multi-Armed Spirals in Rayleigh-Benard Convection

Abstract

We report experimental observations of the core dynamics of multi-armed, rotating spirals in Rayleigh-Benard convection for a fluid with Prandtl number near one. In addition to the large-scale rotation of the spirals, we found a cyclic core motion within a central area of radius r = appr. (n lambda/2), where n is the number of spiral arms ending in the core and lambda is the wavelength of the pattern. The dynamics of the core was much faster than the large-scale spiral rotation. We observed multi-armed spirals for which the two periods were commensurate and others for which they were incommensurate.

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References in corpus (4)

• Spiral Defect Chaos in Large Aspect Ratio Rayleigh-Benard Convection
• Spiral defect chaos in a model of Rayleigh-Benard convection
• Defect Dynamics for Spiral Chaos in Rayleigh-Benard Convection
• Study of spiral pattern formation in Rayleigh-Benard convection

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Dynamics and Selection of Giant Spirals in Rayleigh-Benard Convection
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• Localized and extended patterns in the cubic-quintic Swift-Hohenberg equation on a disk
• Transition from rotating waves to modulated rotating waves on the sphere
• Spiral Dynamics in Pattern-Forming Systems: Mean Flow Effects