Information Complexity of Laminar Chaotic Mixing Field Produced by Two Parallel, Rotating Cylinders

Teiji Takigawa¹, Naoto Ohmura², Kentaro Yagyuu³ and Kunio Kataoka⁴

^1,3Division of Resource and Energy Science, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
^2,4Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Kobe University, Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
E-mail: ¹963d859n@kobe-u.ac.jp, ²ohmura@cx.kobe-u.ac.jp, ³991t561n@kobe-u.ac.jp, ⁴kataoka@cx.kobe-u.ac.jp

(Received April 19, 2000; Accepted May 19, 2000)

Keywords: Laminar Chaotic Mixing, Estimation Method, Poincaré Section, Information Entropy.

Abstract. The purpose of the present work is to numerically analyze information complexity of the laminar chaotic mixing field produced by two parallel, rotating cylinders from a viewpoint of optimization of mixing field. The new method for estimating complexity presented is based on the information theory and the nonlinear theory. A very simple flow system consisting of two parallel rotating cylinders was investigated. A Poincaré section was constructed by tracing the trajectories of tracer particles in order to reveal the final mixing pattern. As a measure of spatial homogeneity of particle dispersion, information entropy was calculated. It has been found that the information entropy can suitably evaluate mixedness of laminar mixing fields.