Temperature Modulation in Rayleigh-Benard Convection

Abstract

The parametric instability of an infnite horizontal fluid layer excited by time periodic oscillation of the wall temperatures, has been investigated numerically, using the Floquet analysis. It has been found that the modulation of the temperature gradient across the fluid layer affects the onset of the Rayleigh-Benard convection. The instability zones in the parametric space of the dimensionless wave number of disturbance and the amplitude of modulation, have been obtained. The instability response has been found to be harmonic or subharmonic with respect to the frequency of modulation, depending upon the modulation parameters.