Simulating coarsening dynamics of fractal clusters

Azi Lipshtat, Baruch Meerson, Massimo Conti
Chaos 14, S14 (2004)
http://link.aip.org/link/?CHAOEH/14/S14/1

The movie shows the dynamics of coarsening by surface tension of a diffusion-limited aggregate in two dimensions, as described by the Cahn--Hilliard equation, a standard model of diffusion-controlled phase separation in two-component systems. Quantitative measurements reveal fascinating anomalies in the dynamic scaling behavior of this system. The simulation results closely resemble experimental results of Sharon et al. on the coarsening of fractal viscous fingering patterns in a radial Hele-Shaw cell. We argue that an unforced Hele-Shaw model, which is a natural model for the experiment, belongs to the same universality class as the Cahn--Hilliard equation.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• chaos
• fractal
• dynamics