Connections Between Regularized and Large-Eddy Simulation Methods for Turbulence (12w5063)

The Banff International Research Station will host the "Connections Between Regularized and Large-Eddy Simulation Methods for Turbulence" workshop from May 13th to May 18th, 2012.

While the glassy, regular flow of water from a slightly opened tap is laminar, the sinuous, irregular flow of water from a fully opened tap is turbulent. In a laminar flow, the velocity and other relevant fields are deterministic functions of position and time. Photos taken at different times, no matter how far removed, of steady laminar flow from a tap will be identical. In a turbulent flow, the velocity and other relevant fields manifest complex spatial and temporal fluctuations. A video of steady turbulent flow from a tap will exhibit a constantly changing pattern and many length and time scales. In nature and human industry, laminar flows are more the exception than the rule. Fluvial, oceanic, pyroclastic, atmospheric, and interstellar flows are generally turbulent, as are the flows of blood through the left ventricle and air in the lungs. Flows around land, sea, and air vehicles and through pipelines, heating, cooling, and ventilation systems are generally turbulent, as are most flows involved in industrial processing, combustion, chemical reactions, and crystal growth. Our ability to predict and control turbulence and, thus, to intensify or suppress its effects as circumstances warrant is contingent on our understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Turbulence is also immensely interesting from a purely scientific perspective and is a great source of fundamentally important, challenging problems. Moreover, various methods and tools developed in the field have found applications in other fields, including nonlinear optics, nonlinear acoustics, pattern formation, image processing, data compression, and econophysics.



The primary objective of this workshop is to bring together mathematicians working on regularized models for turbulence and the most active and prominent mathematicians, fluid mechanicians, physicists, and computational scientists working on advanced, cutting-edge methods of large-eddy simulation (where, to make computations feasible, only the most energetically significant modes of flow are taken into consideration). As yet, interaction between these communities has been limited. This is mainly because their memberships use different terminology and notation. The workshop will foster communication between these two communities. This communication will allow for the identification of common ground, the cross-fertilization of ideas, and the specification of worthwhile problems. These developments should provide a foundation for many fruitful collaborations. These collaborations have the potential to lead to significant advances in our understanding of turbulence.

The Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) is a collaborative Canada-US-Mexico venture that provides an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station is located at The Banff Centre in Alberta and is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Alberta's Advanced Education and Technology, and Mexico's Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT).