We study the dynamics of inertial particles in two-dimensional incompressible flows. The particle dynamics is modeled by four-dimensional dissipative bailout embedding maps of the base flow which is represented by $2-d$ area preserving maps. The phase diagram of the embedded map is rich and interesting both in the aerosol regime, where the density of the particle is larger than that of the base flow, as well as the bubble regime, where the particle density is less than that of the base flow. The embedding map shows three types of dynamic behavior, periodic orbits, chaotic structures, and mixed regions. Thus, the embedding map can target periodic orbits as well as chaotic structures in both the aerosol and bubble regimes at certain values of the dissipation parameter. The bifurcation diagram of the $4-d$ map is useful for the identification of regimes where such structures can be found. An attractor merging and widening crisis is seen for a special region for the aerosols. At the crisis, two period-10 attractors merge and widen simultaneously into a single chaotic attractor. Crisis induced intermittency is seen at some points in the phase diagram. The characteristic times before bursts at the crisis show power-law behavior as functions of the dissipation parameter. Although the bifurcation diagram for the bubbles looks similar to that of aerosols, no such crisis regime is seen for the bubbles. Our results can have implications for the dynamics of impurities in diverse application contexts.

• Received 9 March 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.76.046218