HMC Physics Colloquium
Tuesdays at 16:30 in Shanahan Center for Teaching and Learning, Room B460
Janet Scheel
Occidental College
Go With the Flow: Numerical Simulations of Turbulence in Fluids
Oct. 6, 2009
Turbulent systems are all around us, from waves crashing on our beaches, to smoke rising from the fires in our mountains, to the air that makes our airline flights bouncy and sometimes downright frightening. Turbulent systems are not well understood. Rayleigh-Benard convection is a more simplified system which captures some of the key features of turbulence, including thermal plumes and a large-scale circulation. In Rayleigh-Benard convection, a cylindrical fluid cell is bounded by horizontal parallel plates kept at a constant temperature difference. Results from numerical simulations of the equations which describe Rayleigh-Benard convection will be compared to experimental and theoretical results.