Turbulence

Turbulence

Turbulence within fluids (liquid, gas, plasma, the cosmos, blood, water, air, etc.) is located everywhere. Understanding the physics and mathematics describing turbulent flow remains the last great problem within classical physics. One major goal of the PI is to understand the physics of turbulence. Turbulence is found in almost all industry flows and remains a predominant problem within the aerospace industry. Turbulence can be found in all speed regimes – subsonic, transonic, supersonic, and hypersonic. It is found within the plumes of rocket and jet engines. Turbulence can contain combustion and always radiates acoustic waves. We are interested in how sound is generated from turbulence in many types of academic and industrial flows. We are interested in how other processes change the radiation process – such as chemistry, aeroelasticity, and more. Most aeroacoustic calculations require semi-empirical models of turbulence that are drawn from purely analytical theory. 

Isotropic turbulent field.
zaman
A background oriented schlieren created at NASA Glenn Research Center – courtesy of Zaman. The schlieren shows the shock waves and turbulence of a supersonic off-design jet moving left to right.

Boundary Layer Turbulence.