On the cellular patterns in thermal convection

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Abstract
In the theory of thermal convective instability between two horizontal planes there are many solutions that are periodic in the horizontal co-ordinates, while in experiment convection is observed to take place in cellular patterns. It is often assumed, or decided after insufficient argument, that the periodic solutions of the mathematical model ‘explain’ or correspond to these patterns, but a completely satisfactory discussion of this correspondence has not been given. Indeed, with certain mathematical solutions ambiguities arise as to what cell centres and cellular boundaries are. A detailed discussion has recently become especially necessary because attempts are being made to predict which particular cellular pattern will occur in given experimental conditions.In this paper the topic is studied afresh and the question is asked: what features, in the mathematical model, correspond to what an experimentalist observes in cellular convective motion? In answer a definition of a cell is formulated which relates certain surfaces in the flow field of the mathematical model to steady vertical cellular boundaries that are observed in experiment, and which shows where the cell centres lie. In particular the classical hexagonal cellular pattern, of the mathematical model, is shown to be the prototype pattern of what is experimentally observed. On the other hand the square and so called ‘rectangular’ cases of linearized theory are shown not to correspond truly to square and rectangular cells at all. The new formulation is especially relevant to theoretical work on the prediction of cell shape and direction of flow in cells, since precise knowledge of the shapes of the cellular boundaries and locations of cell centres is essential if predictions are to be compared with observation.