Convective instability in a fluid mixture heated from above

Convection patterns in ethanol-water mixtures with negative psi are studied when the fluid is heated from above. Although the linear analysis predicts that the instability occurs at zero wave number, a large wave number pattern is observed. The onset is supercritical with a threshold that is experimentally indistinguishable from zero. The convection amplitude exhibits damped oscillations for sudden change in the forcing parameter. At the constant Rayleigh number the patterns first coarsen, then exhibit growth of narrow plumes. The instability appears to be related to salt fingering.