Transition to turbulence in a shear flow

We analyze the properties of a 19-dimensional Galerkin approximation to a parallel shear flow. The laminar flow with a sinusoidal shape is stable for all Reynolds numbers Re. For sufficiently large Re additional stationary flows occur; they are all unstable. The lifetimes of finite amplitude perturbations shows a fractal dependence on amplitude and Reynolds number. These findings are in accord with observations on plane Couette flow and suggest a universality of this transition scenario in shear flows.