Geometry of transient chaos in streamwise-localized pipe flow turbulence

In pipes and channels, the onset of turbulence is initially dominated by localizedtransients, which lead to sustained turbulence through their collective dynamics. In thepresent work, we study numerically the localized turbulence in pipe flow and elucidate astate space structure that gives rise to transient chaos. Starting from the basin boundaryseparating laminar and turbulent flow, we identify transverse homoclinic orbits, thepresence of which necessitates a homoclinic tangle and chaos. A direct consequence ofthe homoclinic tangle is the fractal nature of the laminar-turbulent boundary, which wasconjectured in various earlier studies. By mapping the transverse intersections between thestable and unstable manifold of a periodic orbit, we identify the gateways that promote anescape from turbulence.