Advection of passive particles in the Kolmogorov flow.

A statistical analysis of the advection of passive particles in a flow governed by driven two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations (Kolmogorov flow) is presented. Different regimes are studied, all corresponding to a chaotic behavior of the flow. The diffusion is found to be strongly asymmetric with a very weak transport perpendicular to the forcing direction. The trajectories of the particles are characterized by the presence of traps and flights. The trapping time distributions show algebraic decrease, and strong anomalous diffusion is observed in transient phases. Different regimes lead to different types of diffusion, i.e., no universal behavior of diffusion is observed, and both time and space properties are needed to define anomalous transport. (c) 2001 American Institute of Physics.