Chemical and biological processes in chaotic dynamics fluids

• Grant number: 05/01948-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2005
• End date: June 30, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - General Physics
• Principal Investigator: Alessandro Paulo Servio de Moura
• Grantee: Xenia Guennadievna Gousseva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

We propose to study the dynamics of chemical and biological processes which take place within fluids with chaotic advective dynamics. The chaos in the fluid motion gives rise to fractal structures in space, where particles (or chemicals) accumulate. The unusual geometrical properties of these fractal structures generate several kinds of anomalous behavior in the reactive dynamics. In order to study these problems, we propose to use initially simple stochastic models, in which the reactants are considered to be particles immersed in the fluid, and further on we shall use more sophisticated models based on reaction-diffusion-advection partial differential equations. We will perform extensive computational simulations based on these models, as well as semi-analytical mean-field-type techniques. We shall devote particular attention to the application of these ideas to the study of the coexistence of biological populations in non-stationary fluids, having in mind mainly the plankton.