GENERALIZATION OF A NONLINEAR DYNAMO MODEL

In order to gain a better understanding of the physical processes unde rlying fast dynamo action it is instructive to investigate the structu re of both the magnetic field and the velocity field after the dynamo saturates. Previously, computational results have been presented (Catt aneo, Hughes and Kim, 1996) that indicate, in particular, that Lagrang ian chaos is suppressed in the dynamical regime of the dynamo. Here we extend thee's model by removing the assumption of neglecting the iner tial term. This allows for an investigation into the effect of this te rm on the evolution of the dynamo via a comparison of the two models. Our. results indicate that the's term plays a crucial role in the phys ics of the dynamo.