STIRRING EFFECTS AND PHASE-DEPENDENT INHOMOGENEITY IN CHEMICAL OSCILLATIONS - THE BELOUSOV-ZHABOTINSKY REACTION IN A CSTR

The imperfect mixing of reactants in a continuously fed stirred tank r eactor generates inhomogeneous perturbations that are responsible for stirring and mixing effects. Using a cellular mixing model and a kinet ic model of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, we studied the statisti cal properties and dynamical consequences of the reactor inhomogeneiti es during Limit cycle oscillations. Our key result-the time-dependent probability distribution-depends dramatically on oscillation phase: it is sharply peaked during the slow phase and broadens during the rapid phase of oscillation, where reaction is fast compared to mixing, and inhomogeneities and fluctuations are prominent. Observables are obtain ed from the probability distribution by appropriate averaging. We stud ied the stirring dependence of fluctuations and of the average oscilla tion amplitude and period, as well as the variance of these oscillatio n attributes.