The Statistical Dynamics Of Turbulence

This short but complicated book is very demanding of any reader. The scope and style employed preserve the nature of its subject: the turbulence phe nomena in gas and liquid flows which are believed to occur at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers. Since at first glance the field of interest is chaotic, time-dependent and three-dimensional, spread over a wide range of scales, sta tistical treatment is convenient rather than a description of fine details which are not of importance in the first place. When coupled to the basic conserva tion laws of fluid flow, such treatment, however, leads to an unclosed system of equations: a consequence termed, in the scientific community, the closure problem. This is the central and still unresolved issue of turbulence which emphasizes its chief peculiarity: our inability to do reliable predictions even on the global flow behavior. The book attempts to cope with this difficult task by introducing promising mathematical tools which permit an insight into the basic mechanisms involved. The prime objective is to shed enough light, but not necessarily the entire truth, on the turbulence closure problem. For many applications it is sufficient to know the direction in which to go and what to do in order to arrive at a fast and practical solution at minimum cost. The book is not written for easy and attractive reading.

The simulation of technological and environmental flows is very important for many industrial developments. A major challenge related to their modeling is to involve the characteristic turbulence that appears in most of these flows. The traditional way to tackle this question is to use deterministic equations where the effects of turbulence are directly parametrized, i. e. , assumed as functions of the variables considered. However, this approach often becomes problematic, in particular if reacting flows have to be simulated. In many cases, it turns out that appropriate approximations for the closure of deterministic equations are simply unavailable. The alternative to the traditional way of modeling turbulence is to construct stochastic models which explain the random nature of turbulence. The application of such models is very attractive: one can overcome the closure problems that are inherent to deterministic methods on the basis of relatively simple and physically consistent models. Thus, from a general point of view, the use of stochastic methods for turbulence simulations seems to be the optimal way to solve most of the problems related to industrial flow simulations. However, it turns out that this is not as simple as it looks at first glance. The first question concerns the numerical solution of stochastic equations for flows of environmental and technological interest. To calculate industrial flows, 3 one often has to consider a number of grid cells that is of the order of 100 .

This self-contained volume introduces modern methods of statistical mechanics in turbulence, with three harmonised lecture courses by world class experts.

"If ever a field needed a definitive book, it is the study of turbulence; if ever a book on turbulence could be called definitive, it is this book." — Science Written by two of Russia's most eminent and productive scientists in turbulence, oceanography, and atmospheric physics, this two-volume survey is renowned for its clarity as well as its comprehensive treatment. The first volume begins with an outline of laminar and turbulent flow. The remainder of the book treats a variety of aspects of turbulence: its statistical and Lagrangian descriptions, shear flows near surfaces and free turbulence, the behavior of thermally stratified media, and diffusion. Volume Two continues and concludes the presentation. Topics include spectral functions, homogeneous fields, isotropic random fields, isotropic turbulence, self-preservation hypotheses, spectral energy transfer, the Millionshchikov hypothesis, acceleration fields, equations for higher moments and the closure problem, and turbulence in a compressible fluid. Additional subjects include general concepts of the local structure of turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, the theory of fully developed turbulence, the propagation of electromagnetic and acoustic waves through a turbulent medium, and the twinkling of stars. The book closes with a discussion of the functional formulation of the problem of turbulence, presenting the equations for the characteristic functional and methods for their solution.

"If ever a book on turbulence could be called definitive," declared Science, "it is this book by two of Russia's most eminent and productive scientists in turbulence, oceanography, and atmospheric physics." Noted for its clarity as well as its comprehensive treatment, this two-volume set serves as text or reference. 1971 edition.

This book provides state-of-the-art results and theories in homogeneous turbulence, including anisotropy and compressibility effects with extension to quantum turbulence, magneto-hydodynamic turbulence and turbulence in non-newtonian fluids. Each chapter is devoted to a given type of interaction (strain, rotation, shear, etc.), and presents and compares experimental data, numerical results, analysis of the Reynolds stress budget equations and advanced multipoint spectral theories. The role of both linear and non-linear mechanisms is emphasized. The link between the statistical properties and the dynamics of coherent structures is also addressed. Despite its restriction to homogeneous turbulence, the book is of interest to all people working in turbulence, since the basic physical mechanisms which are present in all turbulent flows are explained. The reader will find a unified presentation of the results and a clear presentation of existing controversies. Special attention is given to bridge the results obtained in different research communities. Mathematical tools and advanced physical models are detailed in dedicated chapters.

"If ever a field needed a definitive book, it is the study of turbulence; if ever a book on turbulence could be called definitive, it is this book." — Science Written by two of Russia's most eminent and productive scientists in turbulence, oceanography, and atmospheric physics, this two-volume survey is renowned for its clarity as well as its comprehensive treatment. The first volume begins with an outline of laminar and turbulent flow. The remainder of the book treats a variety of aspects of turbulence: its statistical and Lagrangian descriptions, shear flows near surfaces and free turbulence, the behavior of thermally stratified media, and diffusion. Volume Two continues and concludes the presentation. Topics include spectral functions, homogeneous fields, isotropic random fields, isotropic turbulence, self-preservation hypotheses, spectral energy transfer, the Millionshchikov hypothesis, acceleration fields, equations for higher moments and the closure problem, and turbulence in a compressible fluid. Additional subjects include general concepts of the local structure of turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, the theory of fully developed turbulence, the propagation of electromagnetic and acoustic waves through a turbulent medium, and the twinkling of stars. The book closes with a discussion of the functional formulation of the problem of turbulence, presenting the equations for the characteristic functional and methods for their solution.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue Intermittency and Self-Organisation in Turbulence and Statistical Mechanics that was published in Entropy