The Essence Of Turbulence As A Physical Phenomenon

This book critically reexamines what turbulence really is, from a fundamental point of view and based on observations from nature, laboratories, and direct numerical simulations. It includes critical assessments and a comparative analysis of the key developments, their evolution and failures, along with key misconceptions and outdated paradigms. The main emphasis is on conceptual and problematic aspects, physical phenomena, observations, misconceptions and unresolved issues rather than on conventional formalistic aspects, models, etc. Apart from the obvious fundamental importance of turbulent flows, this emphasis stems from the basic premise that without corresponding progress in fundamental aspects there is little chance for progress in applications such as drag reduction, mixing, control and modeling of turbulence. More generally, there is also a desperate need to grasp the physical fundamentals of the technological processes in which turbulence plays a central role.

This book critically reexamines what turbulence really is, from a fundamental point of view and based on observations from nature, laboratories, and direct numerical simulations. It includes critical assessments and a comparative analysis of the key developments, their evolution and failures, along with key misconceptions and outdated paradigms. The main emphasis is on conceptual and problematic aspects, physical phenomena, observations, misconceptions and unresolved issues rather than on conventional formalistic aspects, models, etc. Apart from the obvious fundamental importance of turbulent flows, this emphasis stems from the basic premise that without corresponding progress in fundamental aspects there is little chance for progress in applications such as drag reduction, mixing, control and modeling of turbulence. More generally, there is also a desperate need to grasp the physical fundamentals of the technological processes in which turbulence plays a central role.

Now in its second edition, this book clearly, concisely and comprehensively outlines the essence of turbulence. In view of the absence of a theory based on first principles and adequate tools to handle the problem, the “essence” of turbulence, i.e. what turbulence really is from a fundamental point of view, is understood empirically through observations from nature, laboratories and direct numerical simulations rather than explained by means of conventional formalistic aspects, models, etc., resulting in pertinent issues being described at a highly theoretical level in spite of the mentioned lack of theory. As such, the book highlights and critically reexamines fundamental issues, especially those of paradigmatic nature, related to conceptual and problematic aspects, key misconceptions and unresolved matters, and discusses why the problem is so difficult. As in the previous edition, the focus on fundamental issues is also a consequence of the view that without corresponding advances in fundamental aspects there is little chance of progress in any applications. More generally there is a desperate need for physical fundamentals of a great variety of processes in nature and technology in which turbulence plays a central role. Turbulence is omnipresent throughout the natural sciences and technology, but despite the vast sea of information available the book retains its brevity without oversimplifications, making it of interest to a broad audience.

To Turbulence by ARKADY TSINOBER Department of Fluid Mechanics, Faculty of Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW eBookISBN: 0-306-48384-X Print ISBN: 1-4020-0110-X ©2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers NewYork, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht All rights reserved No part of this eBook maybe reproducedor transmitted inanyform or byanymeans, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: http://kluweronline. com and Kluwer's eBookstoreat: http://ebooks. kluweronline. com TO My WITS TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Brief history 1 1. 1 1. 2 Nature and major qualitative universal features of turbulent flows 2 1. 2. 1 Representative examples of turbulent flows 2 1. 2. 2 In lieu of definition: major qualitative universal f- tures of turbulent flows 15 1. 3 Why turbulence is so impossibly difficult? The three N's 19 On the Navier-Stokes equations 19 1. 3. 1 1. 3. 2 On the nature of the problem 21 1. 3. 3 Nonlinearity 22 1. 3. 4 Noninegrability 22 Nonlocality 1. 3. 5 23 1. 3. 6 On physics of turbulence 24 1. 3. 7 On statistical theories 24 1. 4 Outline of the following material 25 1. 5 In lieu of summary 26 2 ORIGINS OF TURBULENCE 27 2. 1 Instability 27 2. 2 Transition to turbulence versus routes to chaos 29 2.

This fully revised second edition focuses on physical phenomena and observations in turbulence, and is focused on reversing misconceptions and ill-defined concepts. New topics include ergodicity, Eulerian versus Lagrangian descriptions, theory validation, and anomalous scaling.

Experts of fluid dynamics agree that turbulence is nonlinear and nonlocal. Because of a direct correspondence, nonlocality also implies fractionality. Fractional dynamics is the physics related to fractal (geometrical) systems and is described by fractional calculus. Up-to-present, numerous criticisms of linear and local theories of turbulence have been published. Nonlinearity has established itself quite well, but so far only a very small number of general nonlocal concepts and no concrete nonlocal turbulent flow solutions were available. This book presents the first analytical and numerical solutions of elementary turbulent flow problems, mainly based on a nonlocal closure. Considerations involve anomalous diffusion (Lévy flights), fractal geometry (fractal-β, bi-fractal and multi-fractal model) and fractional dynamics. Examples include a new ‘law of the wall’ and a generalization of Kraichnan’s energy-enstrophy spectrum that is in harmony with non-extensive and non-equilibrium thermodynamics (Tsallis thermodynamics) and experiments. Furthermore, the presented theories of turbulence reveal critical and cooperative phenomena in analogy with phase transitions in other physical systems, e.g., binary fluids, para-ferromagnetic materials, etc.; the two phases of turbulence identifying the laminar streaks and coherent vorticity-rich structures. This book is intended, apart from fluids specialists, for researchers in physics, as well as applied and numerical mathematics, who would like to acquire knowledge about alternative approaches involved in the analytical and numerical treatment of turbulence.

This book presents some of the most important results concerning atmospheric turbulence and some of its effects on the propagation of a light beam. Atmospheric turbulence causes fluctuations in both the intensity and the phase of the beam and still must be understood and modelized for applications in photonics or environmental metrology. The future of free-space optical (FSO) communication through atmospheric turbulence channels is especially of interest and research on high bit-rate communications attracts more and more interest as an alternative to radio links because of bandwidth, spectrum, and security issues. Some of the current solutions for improving FSO communications are presented in this book.

Introducing key concepts in turbulent transport with an overview of analytical and statistical tools to advanced graduates and researchers.