Characterization of chaotic thermal convection of viscoelastic fluids (Q1434705)

The authors deal with the four-dimensional dynamical system which describes the thermal convection between two horizontal plates maintained at different temperature for an Oldroyd-B fluid. The results are obtained by means of time signature, phase portraits, power spectrum, Poincaré map, Lyapunov exponents and bifurcation diagrams. The intricate interaction between inertia and elasticity in thermal convection for viscoelastic fluids is emphasized. The authors show that viscoelastic chaotic attractor is characterized by a higher fractal dimension than the Newtonian chaotic attractor.