Convective Effects in a Reaction-Diffusion System:
Marangoni Effects and Spontaneous Motion
Hiroyuki Kitahata
Reaction-diffusion equations can be used only when the medium does not move. However, the medium itself usually moves in the real world. We introduce this effect by adding an advection term to the reaction-diffusion equation. This can be considered the natural generalization of the reaction-diffusion system. In this study, mutual coupling between pattern formation in reaction-diffusion systems and convective flow is investigated. Since the scales of the flow velocity and propagating-wave velocity are comparable, novel phenomena can be observed in both experiments and numerical calculations. In the present article, some experimental results are given and a theoretical discussion and/or numerical modeling are presented from the viewpoint of reaction-diffusion systems with convective effects.
Keywords: Reaction-diffusion system, Marangoni effect, interfacial tension, spontaneous motion, convection.