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Onset of Surface-Tension-Driven Benard Convection

Michael F. Schatz, Stephen J. VanHook, William D. McCormick, J. B. Swift, Harry L. Swinney

patt-solarXiv:patt-sol/9507002

Abstract

Experiments with shadowgraph visualization reveal a subcritical transition to a hexagonal convection pattern in thin liquid layers that have a free upper surface and are heated from below. The measured critical Marangoni number (84) and observation of hysteresis (3%) agree with theory. In some experiments, imperfect bifurcation is observed and is attributed to deterministic forcing caused in part by the lateral boundaries in the experiment.

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