Nonlinear oscillatory convection: A quantitative phase dynamics approach (Q1092740)

The oscillatory instability of convective rolls, for both free-slip and rigid boundary conditions, is shown to be related to the translational and Galilean invariances of the Oberbeck-Boussinesq equations, which implies that the phase dynamics of the basic roll pattern is second order in time. In the free-slip case the invariance is exact and the instability comes in at zero wavenumber. It is argued that, for low Prandtl number fluids, the effect of the rigid boundaries is to weakly break the Galilean invariance, thereby shifting the instability's critical wavenumber to a finite value. We derive the equations governing the nonlinear phase dynamics and show that, when supercritical, the instability always saturates into travelling waves (as observed in experiments and numerical simulations). In the rigid case, the description is made quantitative by numerically computing both the linear and nonlinear coefficients of the phase equation. It is found that, depending of the values of Prandtl number P and basic roll pattern wavenumber \(\alpha\), the oscillatory instability can be supercritical or subcritical. In the case of mercury \((P=0.025)\), our model predicts transition from supercritical onset to subcritical onset, for \(\alpha\) slightly below the critical wavenumber for convection onset.