WAVE-INDUCED CHAOS IN A CONTINUOUSLY FED UNSTIRRED REACTOR

The spatiotemporal evolution of a simple, cubic autocatalytic model fo r chemical feedback under conditions appropriate to a continuous-flow unstirred reactor (CFUR) is examined. It is found that, even under con ditions for which all the species have equal diffusivities and for an initial uniform distribution of the reactant, complex dynamics can res ult from localised initiation with the autocatalyst. The complex dynam ics are induced initially by the propagation of a constant-velocity co nstant-form reaction wave that traverses the reaction domain, leaving behind a temporally unstable steady state of the corresponding well st irred system. As the local concentrations evolve away from this residu al unstable state, there is an effective local resetting of the chemic al clockwork, allowing further wave events to be initiated, which then propagate into the 'recovered' region. The chaotic nature of this sel f-sustaining, spatiotemporal response is confirmed by the method of pr oper orthogonal decomposition and by illustrating extreme sensitivity to initial conditions.