Feedback control of weakly nonlinear Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni convection

We study the effect of proportional feedback control on the onset and development of finite-wavelength Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni (RBM) convection using weakly nonlinear theory as applied to Nield's model, which includes both thermocapillarity and buoyancy but ignores deformation of the free surface. A two-layer model configuration is used, which has a purely conducting gas layer on top of the liquid. In the feedback control analysis, a control action in the form of temperature or heat flux is considered. Both measurement and control action are assumed to be continuous in space and time. Besides demonstrating that stabilization of the basic state can be achieved on a linear basis, the results also indicate that a wide range of weakly nonlinear flow properties can also be altered by the linear and nonlinear control processes used here. These include changing the nature of hexagonal convection and the amount of subcritical hysteresis associated with subcritical bifurcation.