Three‐dimensional flow in a shear‐driven cube

Abstract

The flow in a cubic cavity is studied when a constant shear stress is imposed on one of its square faces. The three-dimensional basic flow undergoes a first steady, symmetry-breaking, pitchfork bifurcation. On an increase of the Reynolds number the symmetry-broken flow becomes time-dependent via a Hopf bifurcation. Even though the basic flow is similar to the one in the lid-driven cube, the sequence of bifurcations differs significantly.