COMPUTER-SIMULATION OF TURING STRUCTURES IN THE CHLORITE-IODIDE-MALONIC ACID SYSTEM

The emergence, growth and stabilization of stationary concentration pa tterns in a continuously fed chemical reaction-diffusion system are st udied through numerical simulation of the Lengyel-Epstein model. This model represents a key to understanding the recently obtained Turing s tructures in the chlorite-iodide-malonic acid system. Using the supply of iodine as a control parameter, the regularity of the hexagonal pat terns that develop from the noise inflicted homogeneous steady state i s examined. In the region where they are both stable, the competition between Hopf oscillations and Turing stripes is studied by following t he propagation of a front connecting the two modes. Finally, examples are given for the types of structures that can develop when a gradient in feed concentration is applied to the system.