Merger of coherent structures in time-periodic viscous flows

Inertia-induced changes in transport properties of an incompressible viscous time-periodic flow are studied in terms of the topological properties of volume-preserving maps. In the noninertial limit, the flow admits one constant of motion and thus relates to a so-called one-action map. However, the invariant surfaces corresponding to the constant of motion are topologically equivalent to spheres rather than the common case of tori. This has fundamental ramifications for the effect of inertia and leads to a new kind of response scenario: resonance-induced merger of coherent structures. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.