WOYCZYNSKI – författare

The classical concept of turbulence is most often associated with fluid dynamics. However, it is in fact a dominant feature of most systems having a large or infinite number of degrees of freedom. In demonstration of this fact, the current volume covers topics such as acoustics, optics, and Jupiter's red spot, as wen as traditional hydrodynamics. The emphasis of the volume is on applications of the relatively new theory of weak turbulence. 'nis theory, which has been developed largely in the last twenty five years, anows for the existence of a multiplicity of linearly unstable modes interacting in a nonlinear "soup." It makes many intriguing connections to such topics as Hamiltonian mechanics, nonlinear parties, equations and integrable systems, stochastic analysis, and methods developed in quantum field theory. Most of the contributions in this book aim at finding and applying the proper mathematical and statistical tools to describe fully developed turbulence. These diverse applications serve to illustrate the power of a unified approach based for the most part on a Hamiltonian formulation.A few chapters address a class of stochastic nonlinear nondispersive waves known as Burger:e turbulence. Set into historical context by V. E. Zakharov's opening chapter, the contributions to this book will be of interest to research workers and graduate students in pure and applied mathematics, theoretical physics, fluid mechanics, oceanography, and various areas of engineering.

This book is an outgrowth of the NSF-CBMS conference Nonlinear Waves £3 Weak Turbulence held at Case Western Reserve University in May 1992. The principal speaker at the conference was Professor V. E. Zakharov who delivered a series of ten lectures outlining the historical and ongoing developments in the field. Some twenty other researchers also made presentations and it is their work which makes up the bulk of this text. Professor Zakharov''s opening chapter serves as a general introduction to the other papers, which for the most part are concerned with the application of the theory in various fields. While the word "turbulence" is most often associated with f:l. uid dynamics it is in fact a dominant feature of most systems having a large or infinite number of degrees of freedom. For our purposes we might define turbulence as the chaotic behavior of systems having a large number of degrees of freedom and which are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Work in field can be broadly divided into two areas: • The theory of the transition from smooth laminar motions to the disordered motions characteristic of turbulence. • Statistical studies of fully developed turbulent systems. In hydrodynamics, work on the transition question dates back to the end of the last century with pioneering contributions by Osborne Reynolds and Lord Rayleigh.