OSCILLATORY CHEMICAL-REACTION IN A CSTR WITH FEEDBACK-CONTROL OF FLOW-RATE

We present an experimental and numerical study of the chlorine dioxide -iodide (CDI) reaction in a single, well-stirred, flow-through reactor with feedback regulation of flow rate in three different arrangements . The control is accomplished through a computer-mediated sigmoidal de pendence of the dynamic flow rate(s) on the iodide concentration. Nume rical simulations predict interesting dynamics in the CDI reaction sys tem, which, without control, displays only steady-state and/or simple periodic oscillations. Our experiments confirm that bursting emerges a s a result of the feedback control. We attribute bursting to the coexi stence of the stable steady state and oscillations in the uncontrolled system. A period doubling sequence leading to chaos results from the nonlinear dependence of the oscillatory period on the flow rate in the vicinity of a Hopf bifurcation point.