Two-dimensional convection in a horizontal fluid layer with spatially periodic boundary temperatures

Abstract

Two-dimensional thermal convection in a fluid layer confined between two horizontal rigid walls kept at spatially periodic temperatures is investigated by direct numerical simulations. With increasing the Rayleigh number, convection evolves from a steady state to a temporally chaotic flow. It is observed that the transition to the chaos occurs via quasi-periodic states with two or three basic frequencies or via sequences of period-doubling bifurcations, according to the boundary temperature distributions.