The laws governing the problem are well known and, for simple incompressible fluids under normal conditions, are embodied in the avier-Stokes equations. The problem of turbulence provides a counter-example to this rule. There has been a widespread view among many physicists that whenever a new problem arises in their subject, it appears that somehow, like magic, the mathematics required for it is found to have already been invented. The basic issue is that the turbulent flow problems we are interested in are almost always highly non-linear, and the mathematics for handling such highly non-linear problems does not seem to exist. For example, it’s not currently possible to predict the pressure loss in a pipe in which the flow is turbulent, but it’s known thanks to clever use of data at some level obtained in experiments. Roddam Narasimha and this is what he had to say: “To this day we are unable to predict the simplest turbulent flows starting from the first principles of mechanics like Newton’s laws, without ever appealing to experimental data about the flow itself. We got a chance to speak to Padma Vibushan recipient, Prof. Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer to the first.”Ī simulation snapshot showing turbulence in a jet In fact, Nobel laureate, Richard Feynman, declared it as “the most important unsolved problem in classical physics.” Quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg, when asked what he would ask God if given the opportunity, remarked: “I’ll ask him two questions. Scientists resort to high performance computing techniques, along with experiments and theoretical simplifications to study the phenomena, but a complete theory of turbulence is still lacking, making fluid turbulence one of the most important unsolved problems in physics today. Making the problem even more difficult to tackle is the fact that the equations governing the motion of a fluid − namely the Navier-Stokes equations − are notoriously hard to analyse. While there have been plenty of experiments and empirical data regarding turbulence, we’re still far from a convincing theory about what precisely triggers turbulence in a fluid, how it is controlled, and what exactly lends it order through chaos. Turbulence is characterised by random fluctuations in variables like velocity and pressure. It’s also of importance to engineers as it occurs frequently in flow over turbine blades, aerofoils and other bodies. Turbulence is ubiquitous in nature, occurring in various geophysical and oceanic flows. This is one of the classical examples of turbulence and is used to explain it to school students and graduates alike. The jet from a tap that’s turned on completely breaks into chaotic patches of fluid, different from the unified stream of jet we get when we only half open it. Mathematicians have nightmares about it.įluid turbulence is all around us. Physicists, however, have a much tougher time explaining this phenomena of turbulence in fluids. Flight turbulence, more technically referred to as ‘clear-air turbulence’, is caused due to the meeting of two bodies of air moving at different speeds.
However, turbulence in fluid mechanics is a whole different ball game. You’re probably more familiar with it as the word that describes the sudden bumpiness during a flight. It’s about those problems in science that have left scientists scratching their heads, wondering if they’ll ever yell, “Eureka!” This article, however, is not about these achievements. We’ve solved age old problems in Mathematics and created theories that gave maths new problems. We’ve built machines that can compute and solve problems that no human can work out. We’ve been able to research galaxies and the atoms that make up matter. In the last two centuries, Science has answered many questions about nature and the laws that govern it.
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