Blue sky catastrophe in double-diffusive convection.
A global bifurcation of the blue sky catastrophe type has been found in a small Prandtl number binary mixture contained in a laterally heated cavity. The system has been studied numerically applying the tools of bifurcation theory. The catastrophe corresponds to the destruction of an orbit which, for a large range of Rayleigh numbers, is the only stable solution. This orbit is born in a global saddle-loop bifurcation and becomes chaotic in a period-doubling cascade just before its disappearance at the blue sky catastrophe.
Meca
Esteban
E
Departament de Física Aplicada, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Jordi Girona 1-3, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain. esteban@fa.upc.es
Mercader
Isabel
I
Batiste
Oriol
O
Ramírez-Piscina
Laureano
L