MODELING 2-DIMENSIONAL FLUID-FLOWS WITH CHAOS THEORY

Experiments at the Applied Physics Laboratory have shown that chaos th eory can be used to quantitatively model two-dimensional fluid flows. These results support the utility, under some circumstances, of low-de gree-of-freedom approaches to the theoretically infinite-degree-of-fre edom phenomena described by the Navier-Stokes equations. However, the types of predictions made by chaos theory are fundamentally different from the predictions that result from usual approaches such as computa tional fluid dynamics. Chaotic models of fluids thus require further i nvestigation before their overall utility can be evaluated.