The rotor-oscillator flow : searching for coherence amidst chaos

Chaotic mixing of highly viscous fluids is common in many biological and industrial processes. This study aims to gain insight about the properties of such common processes by examining one particular case of viscous, chaotic mixing: the rotor-oscillator flow. For some couplings of the rotor motion with its oscillation, this flow has been shown to have coherent islands of fluid parcels surrounded by a sea of chaos. Through finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) analysis, a roughly optimal coupling was found. The parameters that describe this coupling are the nondimensional oscillation amplitude [epsilon] = 0.125 and frequency [lambda] = 0.4[pi]. In order to understand more about the mixing of slow-moving, highly viscous fluids, these values can and will be explored experimentally and through braid theory to further examine the regions of coherence in this generally chaotic flow.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Fay, Sarah (Sarah C.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas Peacock.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98955

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/98955