Pinning and long-time-scale behavior in traveling-wave convection

Abstract

We study nonlinear traveling-wave (TW) and stationary states of convection in experiments in ethanol-water mixtures. While the TW phase velocity as a function of Rayleigh number has been recently shown to be in agreement with the predictions of theory and numerical calculations, we find that this velocity is temporally modulated at frequencies corresponding to the travel time of a single convection roll and of a roll pair past a point stationary in the convection cell. This modulation could be due to the pinning of the convection pattern by experimental inhomogeneities. For large Rayleigh numbers where stationary overturning convection is expected, we sometimes observe extremely slow unidirectional TW states. For larger Rayleigh numbers, this slow TW state starts and stops intermittently on a characteristic time scale of several days. The possible origin of these phenomena and their potential utility are discussed.