Nonlinear oscillatory convection

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Abstract
A numerical analysis has been performed of three-dimensional time-dependent solutions which bifurcate supercritically from two-dimensional convection-roll solutions at the onset of the oscillatory instability. The bifurcating solutions describe a periodic shifting forward and backward of the convection rolls and lead to a strong deformation of the rolls as the Rayleigh number increases. Since the bifurcating solution is stable in the form of a travelling wave, the computational expense can be reduced by assuming a moving coordinate. Travelling-wave solutions have been computed in the case of rigid boundaries as a function of the Prandtl number and of the two basic wavenumbers αx, αy of the problem. The onset of oscillations reduces the heat transport in comparison with that of two-dimensional rolls because the occupation of a new degree of freedom of motion by the oscillation reduces the energy of the heat-transporting component of convection. A limited stability analysis of finite-amplitude travelling waves has been performed and the onset of an asymmetric mode of oscillations is determined as a function of the parameters of the problem. This mode appears to be identical with a mode that was observed in the numerical simulations of Lipps (1976) and McLaughlin & Orszag (1982).