Chaotic transport and mixing of a passive admixture by vortex flows behind obstacles

A two-layer nonviscous model of chaotic advection in a unidirectional pulsating running current above a delta-shaped underwater elevation is considered. The property of local stability is used and a characteristic similar to the cumulative Lyapunov exponent is introduced that makes it possible to determine the range of regular and chaotic particle behavior. The estimates obtained using this characteristic are for clarifying passive admixture transport in analog model problems. Knowledge of the maximum chaotization region boundary is important for oceanology in view of interpreting point vortices as a model of distributed vortices. The criterion based on using the cubic Hamiltonian approximation for a nonlinear resonance model is introduced to estimate the limiting boundary of the regular region.