Experiments on Dynamics and Control of Spatiotemporal Chaos in Thermal Convection

本研究将探讨对流系统中流体流动控制的基本原理。实验将在表面张力驱动（Marangoni）对流中进行，其中可以探测和改变层流和混沌对流的驱动力，即限制在界面上的热诱导表面张力梯度。驱动将通过界面温度场的红外成像确定，并通过红外激光扫描仪几乎同时多点加热直接改变。本文将研究三个方面的动力学：1)空间周期模式的波数选择机制；2)无序对流缺陷动力学；3)不稳定周期轨道在时空混沌中的作用。

The research will explore the fundamental of controlling fluid flow in convective systems. Experiments will be carried out on surface tension driven (Marangoni) convection where the driving forces, thermally induced surface tension gradients confined to an interface, can be probed and altered for both laminar and chaotic convection. The driving will be determined via infrared imaging of the interfacial temperature field and altered direclty via nearly simultaneous, multipoint heating by an infrared laser scanner. Dynamics in three areas will be investigated: 1) wavenumber selection mechanism of spatially periodic patterns; 2) defect dynamics in disordered convective flow; 3) the role of unstable periodic orbits in spatiotemporal chaos.