5.

26 Chaos

593

IR

b
IR

C2

c
VR f

C1
V2

V1

VR

NR

I3
(a)

0
d

(b)

Fig. 5.26.4 (a) Chuas basic circuit. (b) Non-linear diode characteristic.

One of the most commonly studied chaotic systems is Chuas circuit or Chuas
oscillator. As described by Kennedy (1995a, p. 1116):
Chaos is characterized by a stretching and folding mechanism; nearby trajectories of a dynamical system are repeatedly pulled apart exponentially and folded back together.
In order to exhibit chaos, an autonomous circuit consisting of resistors, capacitors and inductors must contain (i) at least one locally active resistor, (ii) at least one nonlinear element, and
(iii) at least three energy storage elements. The active resistor supplies energy to separate trajectories, the nonlinearity provides folding, and the three-dimensional state space permits persistent stretching and folding in a bounded region without violating the noncrossing property of
trajectories.

The simplest circuit that fulls these requirements is that of Chua and is shown
in Fig. 5.26.4. The non-linear element NR, commonly referred to as Chuas diode,
has the characteristic illustrated in (b). Any physically realizable negative resistance
device must for large enough voltages become passive so the power dissipation will
be positive, and hence there will be segments of positive slope at each end as shown
dashed. If you do a simulation of the driving point impedance of the realization
of NR as shown in Fig. 5.26.5 you will obtain such a form. The usual practical realization of Chuas circuit requires the addition of a resistor in series with the inductor to represent its inherent resistance. The circuit is then referred to as Chuas
oscillator and is shown in Fig. 5.26.5 (Kennedy 1995a, b).
In the rst paper Kennedy varies R0, and in the second C1, to examine the
various responses. In any simulations it is dicult to nd the appropriate values to
demonstrate the various responses and the time taken in searching can be considerable. If possible, running an actual circuit will be considerably quicker as you can
see the consequences immediately. Though it is standard to plot V1 against V2 you
should not overlook all the other available variables which can in eect provide
diering points of view that allow transitions to be more readily seen. Also, to simplify plots it is helpful to limit the range so that the path can be more readily
followed. Figure 5.26.6 shows some examples of what is possible. In these a run of