Active Control of Convection

It is demonstrated theoretically that active (feedback) control can be used to alter the characteristics of thermal convection in a toroidal, vertical loop heated from below and cooled from above. As the temperature difference between the heated and cooled sections of the loop increases,t he flow in the uncontrolled loop changes from no motion to steady; time independent motion to temporally oscillatory, chaotic motion. With the use of a feedback controller effecting small perturbations in the boundary conditions, one can maintain the no-motion state at significantly higher temperature differences than the critical one corresponding to the onset of convection in the uncontrolled system. Alternatively, one can maintain steady, time-independent flow under conditions in which the flow would otherwise be chaotic. That is, the controller can be used to suppress chaos. Likewise, it is possible to stabilize periodic nonstable orbits that exist in the chaotic regime of the uncontrolled system. Finally, the controller also can be used to induce chaos in otherwise laminar (fully predictable), nonchaotic flow.