Template analysis of the hide, skeldon, acheson dynamo

Self-exciting dynamos are nonlinear electro-mechanical engineering devices, or naturally-occurring magnetohydrodynamic fluid systems that convert mechanical energy into magnetic energy without the help of permanent magnets. Hide et al. [1] introduced a nonlinear system of three coupled ordinary differential equations to model a self-exciting Faraday disk homopolar dynamo. Since only a small selection of possible behaviours, including two examples of chaotic behaviour, was investigated by them, Moroz [2]performed a more extensive analysis of the dynamo model, including producing bifurcation transition diagrams and generating unstable periodic orbits for the two chaotic examples. We now extend that analysis and use ideas from topology [3] and results from a corresponding analysis of the Lorenz attractor to identify a possible template for the HSA dynamo. ©2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.