Localization in a spanwise-extended model of plane Couette flow

We consider a nine-partial-differential-equation (1-space and 1-time) model of plane Couette flow in which the degrees of freedom are severely restricted in the streamwise and cross-stream directions to study spanwise localization in detail. Of the many steady Eckhaus (spanwise modulational) instabilities identified of global steady states, none lead to a localized state. Spatially localized, time-periodic solutions were found instead, which arise in saddle node bifurcations in the Reynolds number. These solutions appear global (domain filling) in narrow (small spanwise) domains yet can be smoothly continued out to fully spanwise-localized states in very wide domains. This smooth localization behavior, which has also been seen in fully resolved duct flow (S. Okino, Ph.D. thesis, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 2011), indicates that an apparently global flow structure does not have to suffer a modulational instability to localize in wide domains.