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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Traveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection: analysis of modes and mean flow
J D Scheel1, M R Paul, M C Cross
1Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology 114-36, Pasadena, California 91125, USA. jscheel@caltech.edu
Abstract:
Numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations with rotation for realistic no-slip boundary conditions and a finite annular domain are presented. These simulations reproduce traveling waves observed experimentally. Traveling waves are studied near threshold by using the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (CGLE): a mode analysis enables the CGLE coefficients to be determined. The CGLE coefficients are compared with previous experimental and theoretical results. Mean flows are also computed and found to be more significant as the Prandtl number decreases (from sigma=6.4 to sigma=1). In addition, the mean flow around the outer radius of the annulus appears to be correlated with the mean flow around the inner radius.
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