A Voyage Through Turbulence

by Edited by Peter A. Davidson , Yukio Kaneda , Keith Moffatt , Katepalli R. Sreenivasan

• ISBN13: 9780521198684
• ISBN10: 0521198682
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-31
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Turbulence is widely recognized as one of the outstanding problems of the physical sciences, but it still remains only partially understood despite having attracted the sustained efforts of many leading scientists for well over a century. In A Voyage Through Turbulence we are transported through a crucial period of the history of the subject via biographies of twelve of its great personalities, starting with Osborne Reynolds and his pioneering work of the 1880s. This book will provide absorbing reading for every scientist, mathematician and engineer interested in the history and culture of turbulence, as background to the intense challenges that this universal phenomenon still presents.

Author Biography

Peter A. Davidson is Professor in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Yukio Kaneda is Professor in the Department of Computational Science and Engineering, in the Graduate School of Engineering at Nagoya University, Japan. Keith Moffatt is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Katepalli R. Sreenivasan is University Professor in the Department of Physics and the Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences at New York University.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Osborne Reynolds: a turbulent life	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Professorial career	p. 11
End piece	p. 31
References	p. 37
Prandtl and the Göttingen school	p. 40
Introduction	p. 40
The boundary layer concept, 1904-1914	p. 42
A working program for a theory of turbulence	p. 47
Skin friction and turbulence I: the l/7th law	p. 52
The mixing length approach	p. 54
Skin friction and turbulence II: the logarithmic law and beyond	p. 56
Fully developed turbulence I: 1932 to 1937	p. 62
Fully developed turbulence II: 1938	p. 67
Fully developed turbulence III: 1939 to 1945	p. 74
Prandtl's two manuscripts on turbulence, 1944-1945	p. 78
Conclusion	p. 87
References	p. 92
Theodore von Kármán	p. 101
Introduction	p. 101
The logarithmic law of the wall	p. 104
Isotropic turbulence	p. 109
Epilogue	p. 123
References	p. 124
G.I. Taylor: the inspiration behind the Cambridge school	p. 127
Opening remarks	p. 127
Brief chronological account, focusing mostly on scientific career	p. 131
Ideas originated in the period 1915-1921	p. 133
The intervening period	p. 141
Ideas explored in the period 1935-1940	p. 143
A window into Taylor's personality through his correspondence	p. 153
Some reflections	p. 169
References	p. 179
Lewis Fry Richardson	p. 187
Introduction	p. 187
The 4/3 law	p. 190
Richardson cascade and numerical weather prediction	p. 199
Fractal dimension	p. 204
Conclusions	p. 206
References	p. 207
The Russian school	p. 209
Physicist and pilot	p. 209
Mathematician	p. 212
Applied mathematicians	p. 221
Theoretical physicist	p. 229
Epilogue	p. 233
References	p. 234
Stanley Corrsin	p. 238
Early years	p. 238
First contributions at Caltech	p. 239
Arrival in Baltimore	p. 243
Structure of scalar fields in isotropic turbulence	p. 245
Scalar transport and diffusion	p. 248
Homogeneous turbulence: decay and shear	p. 255
The geometry and intermittency of turbulence	p. 259
Turbulence and chemical reactions	p. 263
The Johns Hopkins environment	p. 266
Final years	p. 269
References	p. 271
George Batchelor: the post-war renaissance of research in turbulence	p. 276
Introduction	p. 276
Marseille (1961): a watershed for turbulence	p. 278
Personal background	p. 280
Batchelor and the Kolmogorov theory of turbulence	p. 281
Batchelor and the turbulent dynamo,	p. 285
The decay of homogeneous turbulence	p. 287
Batchelor's 1953 monograph, The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence	p. 289
Rapid distortion theory	p. 292
Turbulent diffusion	p. 293
Two-dimensional turbulence	p. 294
Later papers	p. 296
George Batchelor as Editor and as Head of Department	p. 297
International activity	p. 299
Conclusion	p. 301
References	p. 301
A.A. Townsend	p. 305
Early years	p. 305
Move to Cambridge	p. 306
War years	p. 307
Return to Cambridge	p. 308
Putting K41 to the test	p. 309
Shear flows	p. 313
The Townsend hypotheses	p. 314
Turbulent shear flows and eddies	p. 321
Meteorological and other flows	p. 323
Concluding remarks	p. 325
References	p. 325
Robert H. Kraichnan	p. 329
Introduction	p. 329
Closures: realizability, Galilean invariance and the random coupling models; MHD turbulence	p. 332
Statistical mechanics and two-dimensional turbulence	p. 342
Intermittency	p. 352
Miscellany and conclusions	p. 359
References	p. 364
Satish Dhawan	p. 373
Introduction	p. 373
The Caltech years	p. 375
At Bangalore	p. 380
Dhawan's approach to building engineering science	p. 387
References	p. 390
Philip G. Saffmari	p. 393
Introduction	p. 393
The problem of turbulent diffusion	p. 397
Contributions to the theory of homogeneous turbulence	p. 402
Saffman as critic	p. 419
References	p. 421
Epilogue: a turbulence timeline	p. 426
The Editors
Bibliography and comments	p. 429
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