Pattern formation in viscous flows. The Taylor-Couette problem and Rayleigh-Bénard convection (Q1281957)

This monograph deals with flow patterns as stable steady solutions (e.g., flows between parallel plates or between rotating cylinders), which can be obtained in certain parameter regimes. The author discusses the Taylor problem in great detail. Mainly, the simplest basic configuration is considered: a Newtonian fluid with constant density, viscosity and temperature between concentric cylinders with periodic boundary conditions in the axial direction. For other issues another model problem is relevant, the Bénard problem: a fluid in a gravitational field between parallel plates or spheres of different temperatures. When discussing this related problem, the book concentrates on the aspects which are of importance for understanding the Taylor problem. The book consists of four chapters. In the first chapter the author describes the Taylor experiment and its mathematical modelling, and gives a review of experimental results and investigations into the stability of Couette flow. Numerical modelling of Taylor vortex flows is discussed in the next chapter. The author concentrates here on the code Tayperio to use it as an example to discuss numerical experiments. The estimates of discretization errors are rather empiric, they are obtained by repeating the computations with several different discretizations. Then, in the third chapter, for different values of wavelengths as parameters, the author describes stationary Taylor vortex flows, focusing on results obtained by using the code Tayperio. In the last, fourth chapter, the author gives an algorithm for performing the limit passage from the Taylor problem to the Boussinesq approximation, describing convection rolls. Then the author investigates the nonlinear interaction of 2-roll solutions with 4-roll and with 6-roll solutions. Fourier expansion, Galerkin method, and perturbation arguments are used to reduce the Boussinesq approximation equations to several nonlinear algebraic systems. For these systems the secondary bifurcations are calculated and computed. The general impression of this book is rather positive. In general, the text is clear, but sometimes the author uses some notions without proper explanation (e.g., the code Tayperio). The book can be set at the boundary between mathematics and computational physics: there are no theorems and most reasonings have physical, rather than mathematical, accuracy. A lot of computations are presented. The students can use this monograph as a textbook. The experts in related fields of mathematics, physics and engineering will find here some new ideas that can be used in their research.