Mixing and chaos in open flows

Alessandro de Moura (1) , Ulrike Feudel (2) , Emmanuelle Gouillart (3)

1 Institute of Dynamics & Control (IDC)
2 Institut fuer Chemie und Biologie des Meeres
3 SVI - Surface du Verre et Interfaces

We review the theory and experimental knowledge of mixing in open flows displaying chaotic advection, from a point of view of dynamical systems theory. We show that the chaotic saddle and its stable and unstable manifolds constitute the skeleton around which the dynamics are organised, and that their fractal properties govern advection and mixing in open flows. The effects of KAM islands on the mixing is examined, as well as the interplay between molecular diffusion and chaotic advection. We discuss what the appropriate definition of mixing is in practical situations, and present experiments motivated by industrial applications to back these discussions. We also discuss applications of these concepts to plankton dynamics in the oceans.

Mots clés: chaotic advection; open flows; mixing

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Systèmes dynamiques [math.DS]

Alessandro de Moura, Ulrike Feudel, Emmanuelle Gouillart. Mixing and chaos in open flows. 2011. ⟨hal-00614299⟩