The Routes to Chaos of 2D Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

Presenter: Malav Thakore, Mechanical Engineering

Authors: M. Thakore, M. Paul

Abstract: Thermal convection is present in many important systems, such as the atmosphere and oceans, solar convection, and reaction-diffusion systems. Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC) is a canonical system that has been extensively studied to explore the chaotic dynamics of a fluid. RBC results when a shallow fluid layer confined between two horizontal flat plates is heated from below in a gravitational field. The dynamics of 2D convection are significantly different than what is found for the much more studied case of 3D RBC. This can be traced to the absence of instability mechanisms in 2D that occur along the axis of the convection rolls in 3D. As a result, 2D convection remains stable well beyond what is expected when a 3D layer of fluid is considered. We numerically explore two ways to increase the complexity of the flow field of 2D convection: (i) by increasing the Rayleigh number for a domain of fixed size, and (ii) by increasing the system size while holding the Rayleigh number constant. In both cases, we investigate the route to chaos and the progression of fluid structures that emerge.

Acknowledgments: Supported by NSF CBET-2151389