Formation and synchronization of autocatalytic noise-sustained structures under Poiseuille flow

Abstract

The formation and synchronization of 2D noise-sustained structures are investigated for Gray–Scott kinetics in packed-bed reactors under Poiseuille flows, when identical systems are submitted to independent spatiotemporal Gaussian white noise sources. A finite-wavelength instability is theoretically predicted and numerically confirmed for uncoupled reactors. In particular, noise-sustained structures that flow with viscous boundary conditions are numerically observed above threshold. When the systems are coupled in master–slave configuration, the numerical simulations show that the slave system replicates to a very high degree of precision the convective patterns arising in the master one due to the selective amplification of noise. The nature of the synchronization and the stability of the synchronization manifold are elucidated.