INTERFACIAL AND BUOYANCY-DRIVEN CONVECTION - THE EFFECT OF GEOMETRY AND COMPARISON WITH EXPERIMENTS

In this study, pattern formation at the bifurcation point from the qui escent state for free surface convection in circular containers is det ermined, A linearized instability calculation that employs three-dimen sional disturbances in the presence of physically realistic side wall boundary conditions is made, The results of the present study will pro vide a very useful asymptotic limit for nonlinear numerical computatio ns. Under restrictive conditions the current calculations check favora bly with those of earlier workers, The results of these studies are co mpared with the experiments of Koschmieder and Prahl (J. Fluid Mech. 2 51, 571, 1990). (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.