Nonlinear analysis of tilted toroidal thermosyphon models

We analyze one-dimensional models for single-phase tilted toroidal thermosyphons for three different heating conditions: known heat flux, known wall temperature and mixed heating. For the first two the governing equations lend themselves to exact reduction to a set of three ordinary differential equations, while for the third the equations remain coupled as an infinite set. For all three cases, the tilt angle is stabilizing while the heat rate is a destabilizer. A nonlinear analysis is carried out using center manifold theory and normal form analysis. The known heat flux solutions lose stability through a supercritical Hopf bifurcation, while for the other two heating conditions the Hopf bifurcation is supercritical under some conditions and subcritical under others. Stable limit-cycle oscillations exist only for the supercritical cases, otherwise instability leads directly to chaos. Analysis also provides an estimate for the amplitude of oscillation for the supercritical conditions. Numerical experiments have confirmed the theoretical predictions qualitatively and quantitatively. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.