A. Laporta et Cm. Surko, DYNAMICS OF 2-DIMENSIONAL TRAVELING-WAVE CONVECTION PATTERNS, Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics, 53(6), 1996, pp. 5916-5934
We report an experimental study of traveling-wave convection patterns
in a binary mixture of ethanol and water. We survey the patterns obser
ved in a large aspect ratio cylindrical container over a broad range o
f Rayleigh numbers. It is found that disordered patterns observed imme
diately after traveling-wave convection is initiated evolve toward org
anized multidomain patterns and that the nature of the multidomain pat
terns depends on the Rayleigh number. A numerical algorithm for extrac
ting the complex order parameter from traveling-wave patterns and meas
uring their dynamical properties is described. This technique is used
to characterize the dynamic aspects of traveling-wave convection patte
rns observed near the saddle node bifurcation. It is shown that the in
stantaneous rate of deformation of the pattern can be determined, and
use of this information as a point of comparison with model equations
is discussed. The joint wave number, frequency distribution for travel
ing-wave patterns is calculated and is shown to be significantly diffe
rent from the dispersion curves previously obtained from one-dimension
al traveling-wave convection patterns.