Traveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-B\'enard Convection:

Analysis of modes and mean flow

J.D. Scheel, M.R. Paul and M.C. Cross

California Institute of Technology

Fully realistic numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations with rotation for an annular domain reproduce traveling wave solutions observed experimentally. The description of traveling waves near threshhold by the complex Ginsburg-Landau equation is studied, including a mode analysis which enables the CGLE coefficients to be determined. Mean flows are also computed, and found to be significant, especially for low Prandtl numbers. Correlations between the flows on the inner and outer boundaries are described.