Observation of Chaotic Dynamics in dilute sheared aqueous solutions of CTAT

Abstract

The nonlinear flow behaviour of a viscoelastic gel formed due to entangled, cylindrical micelles in aqueous solutions of the surfactant CTAT has been studied. On subjecting the system to a step shear rate lying above a certain value, the shear and normal stresses show interesting time dependent behaviour. The analysis of the measured time series shows the existence of a finite correlation dimension and a positive Lyapunov exponent, unambiguously implying that the dynamics can be described by that of a dynamical system with a strange attractor whose dimension increases with the increase in shear rate.