Transitions between symmetric and nonsymmetric regimes in binary-mixture convection

• We study the dynamics of binary-mixture convection on a laterally heated cavity.
• The large range of used parameters connect results from separation ratio S=0S=0 to S=−1S=−1.
• Both steady and time-dependent solutions have been calculated.
• A complex scenario of connected bifurcations has been found.
• Identification of high codimension bifurcations.

We present here a comprehensive picture of the different bifurcations found for small to moderate Rayleigh number in binary-mixture convection with lateral heating and negative separation ratio (SS). The present work connects the symmetric regime found for pure fluid (S=0S=0) (Mercader et al., 2005) with the fundamentally nonsymmetric regime found for S=−1S=−1 (Meca et al., 2004) [2,3]. We give a global context as well as an interpretation for the different associations of bifurcations found, and in particular we interpret an association of codimension-two bifurcations in terms of a higher codimension bifurcation never found, to our knowledge, in the study of an extended system.