SQUARE PATTERN CONVECTION IN BINARY FLUIDS WITH EXPERIMENTAL BOUNDARY-CONDITIONS

Pattern selection in binary-fluid convection with a positive separation ratio S is studied. Relative stability between rolls and squares in an unbounded plane layer with experimentally realistic boundary conditions (fixed temperature, no-slip, and no solutal flux) at the top and bottom is determined. For a mixture with Lewis number tau = 0.02 and Prandtl number sigma = 10 confined between perfectly conducting boundaries, squares are stable whenever S > S3 = 1.01 x 10(-5).