BIFURCATION, INSTABILITY AND CHAOS IN FLUIDIZED-BED CATALYTIC REACTORS WITH CONSECUTIVE EXOTHERMIC CHEMICAL-REACTIONS

A two-phase model for the non-isothermal fluidized bed catalytic reactor with consecutive exothermic reactions has been used to investigate the bifurcation, instability and chaotic characteristics of this industrially important unit. The investigation, although in a restricted region of the parameter space, has uncovered a good part of the rich dynamic characteristics of this system, including; 2n and 2(n)k period doubling sequences leading to chaos. banded and fully developed chaos, interior crises, tangent bifurcation leading to intermittency, periodic windows interrupting chaotic regions and alternating per-iodic-chaotic sequences. Within the chaotic region a new type of periodic windows (termed periodic horns) which differ quantitatively and qualitatively from ordinary periodic windows have been discovered.