In nature, we often find turbulence mixed with convection, meaning that part of the flow is driven by temperature variation. Think thunderstorms, wildfires, or even the hot, desiccating winds of Keep reading
Tag: direct numerical simulation
Adapting to the Flow
Simulating fluid dynamics computationally is no simple task. One of the major challenges is that flows typically consist of many different lengthscales, from the very large to the extremely tiny. In theory, Keep reading
Growing Droplets
The moisture in clouds eventually condenses into droplets that grow into raindrops and fall. Some steps in this process are well understood, but others are not. In particular, scientists have Keep reading
Building Smart Swimmers
Scientists have long wondered whether the schooling of fish is driven by hydrodynamic benefits, but the complexity of their environment makes unraveling this complex motion difficult. A recent study uses Keep reading
Creating Moana’s Ocean
Hopefully by now you’ve had an opportunity to see Disney’s film Moana. Fluid dynamics play a central role in the movie, and Disney’s animators faced the challenge of hundreds of Keep reading
Bumblebees in Turbulence
Bumblebees are small all-weather foragers, capable of flying despite tough conditions. Given the trouble that micro air vehicles have when flying in gusty winds, bumblebees can help engineers to understand Keep reading
Simulated Turbulence
This image, taken from a direct numerical simulation, shows turbulence in a stably stratified flow in which lighter fluid sits atop a denser fluid. In the image lighter colors represent Keep reading
Structures in Turbulence
Despite its appearance, there is order in the chaos of turbulence. These snapshots from a turbulent channel flow simulation outline these coherent structures in black. The top photo shows a Keep reading
Simulating Turbulence
Turbulent flows are complicated to simulate because of their many scales. The largest eddies in a flow, where energy is generated, can be of the order of meters, while the Keep reading
Volcanic Turbulence
One of the characteristics of turbulence is its large range of lengthscales. Consider the ash plume from this Japanese volcano. Some of the eddy structures are tens, if not hundreds, Keep reading