Reentrant EHC Patterns Under Superimposed Square Wave Excitation

ABSTRACT

The presented study deals with pattern forming phenomena in electrohydrodynamic convection (EHC) under superimposed rectangular wave forms. An effect of re-stabilization is observed experimentally, i.e., with changing of one control parameter of the excitation wave form, the system undergoes transitions from the convecting state through the non-convecting ground state back into the convecting state. We provide a theoretical explanation for this behavior using a model based on two coupled homogenous differential equations.

Keywords:

• electroconvection
• spontaneous pattern formation
• stability analysis