Chaotic advection in oscillatory flows
Abstract
In a time-periodic but reversible flow trajectories return to their starting points and there can be no chaos. Experiments on 2-d flows with periodic and reversible driving forces (Gollub et al) do show chaos, and the question arises where reversibility is lost. We discuss two mechanisms: for small Reynolds number in the linear Stokes regime reversibility is lost by a viscous dephasing of the different spatial modes that enter the response of the fluid. For larger Reynolds numbers inertial effects dominate. We also show how reflection symmetries in the driving can prevent large scale transport.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002APS..MAR.U4004E