Chaotic Evolution of Patterns in Benard Marangoni Convection with Square Symmetry

T. ONDARCUHU; G. B. MINDLIN; H. MANCINI; C. PEREZ GARCIA

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS CONDENSED MATTER

Año: 1994 p. 427 - 432

0953-8984

We present the results of a Benard-Marangoni convection experiment in a square container with small aspect ratio. When the control parameters are slightly changed, a sequence of bifurcations is observed. Moreover, in some measurable region of parameter space, a chaotic behaviour is evidenced. We show that these dynamics can be explained by assuming that the system is close to a codimension two (Takens-Bogdanov) bifurcation after taking into account the symmetries of the system. The dynamical model deduced from these simple observations reflects many of the features present in the experiment. The characteristics of the chaotic regime are also compared with those of the model.