SPIRAL DEFECT CHAOS IN RAYLEIGH-BENARD CONVECTION

Motivated by recent experiments on Rayleigh-Benard convection, where s piral defect chaos was discovered, we have simulated the Boussinesq eq uations for the appropriate Rayleigh numbers not far from threshold fo r large aspect ratio systems using a Galerkin method. A detailed analy sis of the results reproduces the experimental findings almost quantit atively. A critical comparison with recent model calculations is also presented. Our investigations show that the new spatiotemporal pattern must be considered generic for Rayleigh-Benard convection.