Reinventing the wheel: The chaotic sandwheel

Abstract

The Malkus chaotic waterwheel, a tool to mechanically demonstrate Lorenzian dynamics, motivates the study of a chaotic sandwheel. We model the sandwheel in parallel with the waterwheel when possible, noting where methods may be extended and where no further analysis seems feasible. Numerical simulations are used to compare and contrast the behavior of the sandwheel with the waterwheel. Simulations confirm that the sandwheel retains many of the elements of chaotic Lorenzian dynamics. However, bifurcation diagrams show dramatic differences in where the order-chaos-order transitions occur.