Contents

Part I The Phenomenon and the Problem of Turbulence

1 The Phenomenon of Turbulence as Distinct from the Problem of
Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Major Qualitative Universal Features of Turbulent Flows . . . . . 6
2 The Problem of Turbulence as Distinct from the Phenomenon of
Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 On Physics and Mathematics of Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 What Equations Describe Turbulence Adequately? . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1 NavierStokes Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.1 On Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2 Large Re, Zero Viscosity Limit and Relevance of Euler Equations 18
3.3 Averaged Equations, Filtering, Decompositions and Similar
Approaches/Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.3.1 On the Utility of Various Decompositions . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Eulerian Versus Lagrangian Representations . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5 Final Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Part II Issues of Paradigmatic Nature I: Origins and Nature of
Turbulence
4 Origins of Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1 Instability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2 Transition to Turbulence Versus Routes to Chaos . . . . . . . . . 33
4.3 Many Ways of Creating (Arising/Emerging) Turbulent Flows . . 34
5 Nature of Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.1 Turbulence is Only Apparently Random . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.2 Limitations of Statistical Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.2.1 Statistical Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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5.2.2 Statistical Methods of Description and Interpretation
of the Data from Laboratory, Field and Numerical
Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.2.3 On Particular ToolsExamples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6 Additional Issues of Importance Related to the Use of Statistical
Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.1 Interpretation and Validation or What About the Right Results
for the Right Reasons or Theories Versus Hard Evidence . . . . . 54
6.1.1 Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.1.2 Validation or Theories Versus Hard Evidence . . . . . . . 57
6.2 Ergodicity and Related . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Part III Issues of Paradigmatic Nature II: Specic Features
7 The Ns of Turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.1 Non-integrability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.2 Nonlinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.2.1 Nonlinearity Plus Decompositions Gives Birth to
Cascades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.2.2 Turbulence Is Essentially Rotational and Strongly
Dissipative Phenomenon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.3 Nonlocality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.3.1 Introductory/General Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
7.3.2 A Simple Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.3.3 Direct and Bidirectional Coupling Between Large and
Small Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
8 Large Reynolds Number Behavior, Symmetries, Universality . . . 85
8.1 Inertial Range, the Roles of Viscosity/Dissipation and Related
Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.2 Reynolds Number Dependence and Behavior of Turbulent Flows
at Large Reynolds Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
8.3 Symmetries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
8.4 Universality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.4.1 Quantitative Universality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
8.4.2 Qualitative Universality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
9 Intermittency and Structure(s) of and/in Turbulence . . . . . . . . 105
9.1 Intermittency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
9.1.1 The External Intermittency and Entrainment . . . . . . . 108
9.1.2 The Small Scale, Internal or Intrinsic Intermittency . . . 108
9.1.3 Measures/Manifestations of Intermittency . . . . . . . . 111
9.1.4 On Possible Origins of Small Scale Intermittency . . . . 115
9.2 What Is(Are) Structure(s) of Turbulent Flows? What We See Is
Real. The Problem Is Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
9.2.1 On the Origins of Structure(s) of/in Turbulence . . . . . . 119
9.2.2 How Does the Structure of Turbulence Look? . . . . . . 120
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9.2.3 Structure Versus Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
9.2.4 What Kinds of Statistics Are Most Appropriate
to Characterize at Least Some Aspects for Turbulence
Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
9.2.5 Structure(s) Versus Scales and Decompositions . . . . . . 129
Part IV Epilogue
10 On the Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
10.1 What Next . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
10.2 What to Do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
11 Appendix. Essential Quotations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
11.1 To Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
11.1.1 On Absence of Genuine Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
11.2 To Chap. 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
11.2.1 On Multitude of Approaches; for More See Also
Chaps. 3 and 9 in Tsinober (2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
11.3 To Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
11.3.1 On the Continuing Diversity of Opinions on What Is
Important, What Are the Main Questions and Related . . 148
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
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