Targeted mixing in an array of alternating vortices.

Transport and mixing properties of passive particles advected by an array of vortices are investigated. Starting from the integrable case, it is shown that a special class of perturbations allows one to preserve separatrices which act as effective transport barriers, while triggering chaotic advection. In this setting, mixing within the two dynamical barriers is enhanced while long range transport is prevented.

Chaotic advection and targeted mixing.

The advection of passive tracers in an oscillating vortex chain is investigated. It is shown that by adding a suitable perturbation to the ideal flow, the induced chaotic advection exhibits two remarkable properties which do not hold in the case of a generic perturbation: Particles remain trapped within a specific domain bounded by two oscillating barriers (suppression of chaotic transport along the channel), and the stochastic sea seems to cover this whole bounded domain (enhancement of mixing within the rolls).