Curious properties of soliton induced by Marangoni instability in shallow Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

Abstract

The detailed properties of a soliton-like wave in shallow fluid layers with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) chemical reaction were investigated. The quite typical characteristics of the wave were acceleration of its wave velocity as well as increase of the amplitude of its surface deformation with its propagation, the very large traveling velocity typically twenty times larger than that of normal trigger waves and the large amplitude of hydrodynamic flow velocity accompanied which is three hundred times larger than that of normal ones. In addition the amplitude of the surface deformation and the propagating velocity of the waves increase with a decrease in layer thickness of the solution. These properties of the soliton-like waves suggest a possibility that they are nontrivial solitary waves induced by the Marangoni effect and are observed only in dissipative systems such as in the BZ chemical reaction.