Axisymmetry Breaking to Travelling Waves in the Cylinder with Partially Heated Sidewall

The transition from an axisymmetric stationary flow to three-dimensional time-dependent flows is carefully studied in a vertical cylinder partially heated from the side, with the aspect ratio A=2 and Prandtl number P₄=0.021. The flow develops from the steady toroidal pattern beyond the first instability threshold, breaks the axisymmetric state at a Rayleigh number near 2000, and transits to standing or travelling azimuthal waves. A new result is observed that a slightly unstable flow pattern of standing waves exists and will transit to stable travelling waves after a long time evolution. The onset of oscillations is associated with a supercritical Hopf bifurcation in a system with O(2) symmetry.