Bailout embeddings and neutrally buoyant particles in three-dimensional flows

Phys Rev Lett. 2002 Dec 23;89(26):264501. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.264501. Epub 2002 Dec 12.

Abstract

We use the bailout embeddings of three-dimensional volume-preserving maps to study qualitatively the dynamics of small spherical neutrally buoyant impurities suspended in a time-periodic incompressible fluid flow. The accumulation of impurities in tubular vortical structures, the detachment of particles from fluid trajectories near hyperbolic invariant lines, and the formation of nontrivial three-dimensional structures in the distribution of particles are predicted.