Prof. Michael F. Schatz, Georgia Tech

"Forecasting Turbulence"

Coffee and cookies will be served at 3:45pm in RLM 4.102

Abstract: Fluid turbulence is one of the great unsolved problems of physics and the subject of a million dollar mathematical Millenium challenge. Eminent physicists Heisenberg, Kelvin, Rayleigh, Sommerfeld and others have made unsuccessful attempts to develop a predictive theory. However, recent theoretical and computational advances have succeeded in linking recurring coherent structures within turbulence to unstable solutions of the equations governing fluid flow. We describe laboratory experiments where the geometry of key coherent structures is identified and harnessed to construct a roadmap to forecast the behavior of weakly turbulent flows.