Characterization of the hairpin vortex solution in plane Couette flow

Quantitative evidence that establishes the existence of the hairpin vortex state (HVS) in plane Couette flow (PCF) is provided in this work. The evidence presented in this paper shows that the HVS can be obtained via homotopy from a flow with a simple geometrical configuration, namely, the laterally heated flow (LHF). Although the early stages of bifurcations of LHF have been previously investigated, our linear stability analysis reveals that the root in the LHF yields multiple branches via symmetry breaking. These branches connect to the PCF manifold as steady nonlinear amplitude solutions. Moreover, we show that the HVS has a direct bifurcation route to the Rayleigh-Bénard convection. © 2010 The American Physical Society.