A Voyage Through Turbulence

452 Pages·2011·4.91 MB·English

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

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AVoyageThroughTurbulence
Turbulenceiswidelyrecognizedasoneoftheoutstandingproblemsofthephysical
sciences,butitstillremainsonlypartiallyunderstooddespitehavingattractedthe
sustainedeffortsofmanyleadingscientistsforwelloveracentury.
InAVoyageThroughTurbulence,wearetransportedthroughacrucialperiodofthe
historyofthesubjectviabiographiesoftwelveofitsgreatpersonalities,startingwith
OsborneReynoldsandhispioneeringworkofthe1880s.Thisbookwillprovide
absorbingreadingforeveryscientist,mathematicianandengineerinterestedinthe
historyandcultureofturbulence,asbackgroundtotheintensechallengesthatthis
universalphenomenonstillpresents.

A Voyage Through Turbulence
Editedby
PETER A. DAVIDSON
UniversityofCambridge
YUKIO KANEDA
NagoyaUniversity
KEITH MOFFATT
UniversityofCambridge
KATEPALLI R. SREENIVASAN
NewYorkUniversity
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,
Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo,Delhi,Tokyo,MexicoCity
CambridgeUniversityPress
TheEdinburghBuilding,CambridgeCB28RU,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521198684
(cid:2)C CambridgeUniversityPress2011
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2011
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata
Avoyagethroughturbulence/[editedby]P.A.Davidson...[etal.].
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferences.
ISBN978-0-521-19868-4(hardback)
1.Turbulence. I.Davidson,P.A.(PeterAlan),1957– II.Title.
QA913.V69 2011
532(cid:3).0527–dc23 2011022992
ISBN978-0-521-19868-4Hardback
ISBN978-0-521-14931-0Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Contents
Listofcontributors pageix
Preface xi
1 OsborneReynolds:aturbulentlife 1
BrianLaunderandDerekJackson
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Professorialcareer 11
1.3 Endpiece 31
References 37
2 PrandtlandtheGo¨ttingenschool 40
EberhardBodenschatzandMichaelEckert
2.1 Introduction 40
2.2 Theboundarylayerconcept,1904–1914 42
2.3 Aworkingprogramforatheoryofturbulence 47
2.4 SkinfrictionandturbulenceI:the1/7thlaw 52
2.5 Themixinglengthapproach 54
2.6 SkinfrictionandturbulenceII:thelogarithmic
lawandbeyond 56
2.7 FullydevelopedturbulenceI:1932to1937 62
2.8 FullydevelopedturbulenceII:1938 67
2.9 FullydevelopedturbulenceIII:1939to1945 74
2.10 Prandtl’stwomanuscriptsonturbulence,
1944–1945 78
2.11 Conclusion 87
References 92
3 TheodorevonKa´rma´n 101
A.LeonardandN.Peters
3.1 Introduction 101
v
vi Contents
3.2 Thelogarithmiclawofthewall 104
3.3 Isotropicturbulence 109
3.4 Epilogue 123
References 124
4 G.I.Taylor:theinspirationbehindtheCambridgeschool 127
K.R.Sreenivasan
4.1 Openingremarks 127
4.2 Briefchronologicalaccount,focusingmostlyon
scientificcareer 131
4.3 Ideasoriginatedintheperiod1915–1921 133
4.4 Theinterveningperiod 141
4.5 Ideasexploredintheperiod1935–1940 143
4.6 AwindowintoTaylor’spersonalitythrough
hiscorrespondence 153
4.7 Somereflections 169
References 179
5 LewisFryRichardson 187
RobertoBenzi
5.1 Introduction 187
5.2 The4/3law 190
5.3 Richardsoncascadeandnumericalweatherprediction 199
5.4 Fractaldimension 204
5.5 Conclusions 206
References 207
6 TheRussianschool 209
GregoryFalkovich
6.1 Physicistandpilot 209
6.2 Mathematician 212
6.3 Appliedmathematicians 221
6.4 Theoreticalphysicist 229
6.5 Epilogue 233
References 234
7 StanleyCorrsin 238
CharlesMeneveauandJamesJ.Riley
7.1 Earlyyears 238
7.2 FirstcontributionsatCaltech 239
7.3 ArrivalinBaltimore 243
7.4 Structureofscalarfieldsinisotropicturbulence 245
7.5 Scalartransportanddiffusion 248
Contents vii
7.6 Homogeneousturbulence:decayandshear 255
7.7 Thegeometryandintermittencyofturbulence 259
7.8 Turbulenceandchemicalreactions 263
7.9 TheJohnsHopkinsenvironment 266
7.10 Finalyears 269
References 271
8 GeorgeBatchelor:thepost-warrenaissanceofresearch
inturbulence 276
H.K.Moffatt
8.1 Introduction 276
8.2 Marseille(1961):awatershedforturbulence 278
8.3 Personalbackground 280
8.4 BatchelorandtheKolmogorovtheoryofturbulence 281
8.5 Batchelorandtheturbulentdynamo 285
8.6 Thedecayofhomogeneousturbulence 287
8.7 Batchelor’s1953monograph,TheTheoryof
HomogeneousTurbulence 289
8.8 Rapiddistortiontheory 292
8.9 Turbulentdiffusion 293
8.10 Two-dimensionalturbulence 294
8.11 Laterpapers 296
8.12 GeorgeBatchelorasEditorandasHeadofDepartment 297
8.13 Internationalactivity 299
8.14 Conclusion 301
References 301
9 A.A.Townsend 305
IvanMarusicandTimothyB.Nickels
9.1 Earlyyears 305
9.2 MovetoCambridge 306
9.3 Waryears 307
9.4 ReturntoCambridge 308
9.5 PuttingK41tothetest 309
9.6 Shearflows 313
9.7 TheTownsendhypotheses 314
9.8 Turbulentshearflowsandeddies 321
9.9 Meteorologicalandotherflows 323
9.10 Concludingremarks 325
References 325
viii Contents
10 RobertH.Kraichnan 329
GregoryEyinkandUrielFrisch
10.1 Introduction 329
10.2 Closures: realizability, Galilean invariance and the
randomcouplingmodels;MHDturbulence 332
10.3 Statisticalmechanicsandtwo-dimensionalturbulence 342
10.4 Intermittency 352
10.5 Miscellanyandconclusions 359
References 364
11 SatishDhawan 373
RoddamNarasimha
11.1 Introduction 373
11.2 TheCaltechyears 375
11.3 AtBangalore 380
11.4 Dhawan’sapproachtobuildingengineeringscience 387
References 390
12 PhilipG.Saffman 393
D.I.PullinandDanielI.Meiron
12.1 Introduction 393
12.2 Theproblemofturbulentdiffusion 397
12.3 Contributionstothetheoryofhomogeneousturbulence 402
12.4 Saffmanascritic 419
References 421
13 Epilogue:aturbulencetimeline 426
TheEditors
Bibliographyandcomments 429