Kenichi Yoshikawa and Yasuyuki Murofushi
Department of Chemistry, College of General Education, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-01, Japan
(Received July 1, 1990; Accepted November 1, 1990)
Keywords: Nonlinear, Salt-Water Oscillators, Entrainment
Abstract. Oscillatory flow of water is generated when a cup, with a small orifice on the bottom, and filled with salt-water, is placed within an outer vessel containing pure-water. This simple system exhibits various non-linear characteristics, such as limit-cycle oscillation, bifurcation of the oscillatory flows, and entrainment among the oscillators. These characteristics can be reproduced by numerical simulation based on non-linear differential equations. The oscillation of the water flow is driven through the repeated change of the difference of hydrostatic pressure at the orifice, i.e., the hydrostatic term exhibits Rip-flop change depending on the direction of the flow.