Bifurcations, Period Doublings and Chaos in Clarinetlike Systems

Wind instruments provide interesting hydrodynamical systems where nonlinearities are important but well localized. A simple analysis shows that these systems should undergo Feigenbaum-type route to chaos, with a cascade of period doublings. Experiments have been performed with an acoustical resonator and an “artificial” excitation (nonlinearities controlled by either analogic or digital devices); they have confirmed these predictions.