UC Santa Barbara mathematics professor Björn Birnir has developed a new model that sheds light on the complex behavior of Lagrangian turbulence, a chaotic, multi-scale flow found in nature.
The research, published in Physical Review Research and conducted in collaboration with Luiza Angheluta of the University of Oslo, identifies a previously uncharacterized scaling regime and connects it to known phases of turbulent flow.
“Most flows that we encounter in nature are turbulent — it does not matter whether it is the flow outside the airplane that makes us fasten our seatbelts, or the flow in a small stream,” Birnir said. “Turbulence is difficult to understand because the mathematical models that describe it are nonlinear, stochastic and the solutions are unstable. This made it necessary to develop new theories to truly understand the nature of turbulence.”
The findings offer a new mathematical framework for understanding how turbulence evolves over time, with potential applications in oceanography, weather prediction and public health. Read the full story on The Current.