Indecomposable Continua In Fluid Flow Past A Spatial Array Of Cylinders
by
Judy Kennedy
University of Delaware
Coauthors: Celso Grebogi, Miguel Sanjuan, James A. Yorke

Using a 2-dimensional Lagrangian dynamics model and its time T Poincaré map, we investigate the dynamics of fluid flow past a spatial array of cylinders. Between each two consecutive cylinders, the return map has a thin invariant Cantor set which admits standard horseshoe-type dynamics. Associated with this Cantor set is a connected, indecomposable, invariant set which (1) accumulates on the subsequent Cantor sets and associated invariant sets downstream, (2) forms a boundary between the fluid flowing above the cylinders and that flowing below, and (3) persists even under small perturbations of the system.

Date received: June 24, 1996

Copyright © 1996 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Mathematical Conference Abstracts. Document # caah-52.