CAPTURE OF CONVECTIVE VORTICESBY AN UNSTEADY-STATE
FLOWIN A HELE-SHAW CELL

I. A. Babushkin and V. A. Demin

UDC 532.516,536.2:532/533

The specific transient regime of thermal convection
in a Hele-Shaw cell has been studied experimentally
and theoretically. It is a kind of unsteady-state,
four-vortex flow, symmetric about the vertical axis,
in the form of periodic pulsations of the lower
convective cells, with the latter being partially
adsorbed by the upper vortices. The transient pulsational
regimes in a Hele-Shaw cell were revealed experimentally
in studying convective motions in a transformer oil.
These pulsational flows are unstable and with time they
are always rearranged into a steady four-vortex vibrational
regime with reconnection of corner vortices.

Perm' State University, 15 Bukirev Str., Perm', 614990, Russia;
email: demin@psu.ru. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii
Zhurnal, Vol. 80, No. 1, pp. 100-106, January-February, 2007.
Original article submitted June 21, 2005.