Lagrangian chaos and Eulerian chaos in shear flow dynamics

John M. Finn, Diego Del-Castillo-Negrete

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Shear flow dynamics described by the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations is studied for a one-dimensional equilibrium vorticity profile having two minima. These lead to two linear Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities; the resulting nonlinear waves corresponding to the two minima have different phase velocities. The nonlinear behavior is studied as a function of two parameters, the Reynolds number and a parameter λ specifying the width of the minima in the vorticity profile. For parameters such that the instabilities grow to a sufficient level, there is Lagrangian chaos, leading to mixing of vorticity, i.e., momentum transport, between the chains of vortices or cat's eyes. Lagrangian chaos is quantified by plotting the finite time Lyapunov exponents on a grid of initial points, and by the probability distribution of these exponents. For moderate values of X, there is Lagrangian chaos everywhere except near the centers of the vortices and near the boundaries, and there are competing effects of homogenization of vorticity and formation of structures associated with secondary resonances. For smaller values of λ Lagrangian chaos occurs in the regions in the centers of the vortices, and the Eulerian behavior of the flow undergoes bifurcations leading to Eulerian chaos, as measured by the time series of several Galilean invariant quantities. A discussion of Lagrangian chaos and its relation to Eulerian chaos is given.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)816-832
Number of pages17
JournalChaos
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2001

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