Entropy production and Lyapunov instability at the onset of turbulent convection

Abstract

Computer simulations of a compressible fluid, convecting heat in two dimensions, suggest that, within a range of Rayleigh numbers, two distinctly different, but stable, time-dependent flow morphologies are possible. The simpler of the flows has two characteristic frequencies: the rotation frequency of the convecting rolls, and the vertical oscillation frequency of the rolls. Observables, such as the heat flux, have a simple-periodic (harmonic) time dependence. The more complex flow has at least one additional characteristic frequency -- the horizontal frequency of the cold, downward- and the warm, upward-flowing plumes. Observables of this latter flow have a broadband frequency distribution. The two flow morphologies, at the same Rayleigh number, have different rates of entropy production and different Lyapunov exponents. The simpler "harmonic" flow transports more heat (produces entropy at a greater rate), whereas the more complex "chaotic" flow has a larger maximum Lyapunov exponent (corresponding to a larger rate of phase-space information loss). A linear combination of these two rates is invariant for the two flow morphologies over the entire range of Rayleigh numbers for which the flows coexist, suggesting a relation between the two rates near the onset of convective turbulence.