Geometric diagnostics of complex patterns: Spiral defect chaos

DOI10.1063/1.2171515MaRDI QIDQ3529654zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Hermann Riecke, Santiago Madruga

Publication date 14 October 2008

Published in Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/nlin/0511016, http://oa.upm.es/21710/

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Strange attractors, chaotic dynamics of systems with hyperbolic behavior (37D45)

Abstract: Motivated by the observation of spiral patterns in a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological systems we present an approach that aims at characterizing quantitatively spiral-like elements in complex stripe-like patterns. The approach provides the location of the spiral tip and the size of the spiral arms in terms of their arclength and their winding number. In addition, it yields the number of pattern components (Betti number), as well as their size and certain aspects of their shape. We apply the method to spiral defect chaos in thermally driven Rayleigh-B'enard convection and find that the arclength of spirals decreases monotonically with decreasing Prandtl number of the fluid and increasing heating. By contrast, the winding number of the spirals is non-monotonic in the heating. The distribution function for the number of spirals is significantly narrower than a Poisson distribution. The distribution function for the winding number shows approximately an exponential decay. It depends only weakly on the heating, but strongly on the Prandtl number. Large spirals arise only for larger Prandtl numbers ($Prgtrsim1$). In this regime the joint distribution for the spiral length and the winding number exhibits a three-peak structure indicating the dominance of Archimedean spirals of opposite sign and relatively straight sections. For small Prandtl numbers the distribution function reveals a large number of small compact pattern components.

Cites work

• Defects in roll-hexagon competition
• Recent Developments in Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
• Statistical characterizations of spatiotemporal patterns generated in the Swift–Hohenberg model
• The stability of finite amplitude cellular convection and its relation to an extremum principle
• Tracking target and spiral waves
• Transition from laminar convection to thermal turbulence in a rotating fluid layer

Cited in

(2)

• Quantitative and qualitative characterization of zigzag spatiotemporal chaos in a system of amplitude equations for nematic electroconvection
• Homology and symmetry breaking in Rayleigh-Bénard convection: Experiments and simulations

This page was built for publication: Geometric diagnostics of complex patterns: Spiral defect chaos

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q3529654)