The Essence of Turbulence as a Physical Phenomenon

Download or read book The Essence of Turbulence as a Physical Phenomenon written by Arkady Tsinober and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-08-23 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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and a comparative analysis of the key developments, their evolution and failures, along with key misconceptions and outdated paradigms.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.