Plastic bottle oscillator as an on-off-type oscillator: experiments, modeling, and stability analyses of single and coupled systems

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2012 Feb;85(2 Pt 2):026204. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.85.026204. Epub 2012 Feb 3.

Abstract

An oscillatory system called a plastic bottle oscillator is studied, in which the downflow of water and upflow of air alternate periodically in an upside-down plastic bottle containing water. It is demonstrated that a coupled two-bottle system exhibits in- and antiphase synchronization according to the nature of coupling. A simple ordinary differential equation is deduced to interpret the characteristics of a single oscillator. This model is also extended to coupled oscillators, and the model reproduces the essential features of the experimental observations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't