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Expanded analogy between Boltzmann kinetic theory of fluids and turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2004

HUDONG CHEN
Affiliation:
EXA Corporation, 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Burlington, MA 01802, USA
STEVEN A. ORSZAG
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
ILYA STAROSELSKY
Affiliation:
EXA Corporation, 3 Burlington Woods Drive, Burlington, MA 01802, USA
SAURO SUCCI
Affiliation:
Istituto Applicazioni Calcolo, CNR, viale Policnico 137, 00161 Roma, Italy

Abstract

We demonstrate that the effects of turbulent fluctuations have a striking resemblance to those of microscale (thermal) fluctuations in laminar flows, even to higher order in the Knudsen number. This suggests that there may be a good basis for understanding turbulence in terms of Boltzmann kinetic theory. If so, turbulence may be better described in terms of ‘mixing times’ rather than the more classical ‘mixing lengths’. Comparisons are made to Reynolds-stress turbulence models.

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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