Turbulence

Turbulent flows refers to fluids whose motion is characterized by unsteady movements. Turbulence is predominant in most natural and industrial systems - atmospheric and oceanic currents, river flows, flows in pipes, flows interacting with objects like airplanes, submarines, and wind turbines, and even blood flow throughout the body are examples of turbulent flow. SAFL researchers focus on advancing the physical understanding of turbulence and other non-linear phenomena by using experiments, field work, and computational fluid dynamics to better identify patterns and structures in turbulent flow. Complex effects such as scale interactions, multiphase flows, and other flow instabilities are studied, with the goal of being able to better control and predict turbulent flow in engineering applications and analysis.