This self-contained volume introduces modern methods of statistical mechanics in turbulence, with three harmonised lecture courses by world class experts.

Publisher Description

This book stresses the role of uncorrelated exchange of properties between macroscopic systems and their surroundings as the only source of dynamic irreversibility. To that end, fundamentals of statistical thermodynamics extended to the non-equilibrium are worked out carefully. The principles are then applied to selected problems in classical fluid dynamics. Transport coefficients are first derived from basic laws. This is followed by a full discussion of transitions to dissipative structures in selected systems far removed from equilibrium (B‚nard and Taylor vortices, calculation of the critical Reynolds number for transition to turbulence in Poiseuille flow). The final part focuses on interaction of matter with light. Fundamentals are extended towards quantum-mechanical systems. Applied to coherent radiation and its interaction with matter, the proposed thermodynamic treatment introduces an original discussion into the quantum nature of micro-physics.The book questions and reconsiders a deeply rooted paradigm in macroscopic dynamics concerning the cause of irreversibility. The new proposal is illustrated by application to a couple of well documented non-equilibrium domains, namely fluid dynamics and laser physics.

This self-contained volume introduces modern methods of statistical mechanics in turbulence, with three harmonised lecture courses by world class experts.

This work presents the construction of an asymptotic technique for solving the Liouville equation, which is an analogue of the Enskog-Chapman technique for the Boltzmann equation. Because the assumption of molecular chaos has not been introduced, the macroscopic variables defined by the arithmetic means of the corresponding microscopic variables are random in general. Therefore, it is convenient for describing the turbulence phenomena. The asymptotic technique for the Liouville equation reveals a term showing the interaction between the temperature and the velocity of the fluid flows, which will be lost under the assumption of molecular chaos.

Groundbreaking monograph by Nobel Prize winner for researchers and graduate students covers Liouville equation, anharmonic solids, Brownian motion, weakly coupled gases, scattering theory and short-range forces, general kinetic equations, more. 1962 edition.

This book deals with the basic principles and techniques of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. The importance of this subject is growing rapidly in view of the advances being made, both experimentally and theoretically, in statistical physics, chemical physics, biological physics, complex systems and several other areas. The presentation of topics is quite self-contained, and the choice of topics enables the student to form a coherent picture of the subject. The approach is unique in that classical mechanical formulation takes center stage. The book is of particular interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in engineering departments.

"I do not think at all that I am able to present here any procedure of investiga tion that was not perceived long ago by all men of talent; and I do not promise at all that you can find here anything_ quite new of this kind. But I shall take pains to state in clear words the pules and ways of investigation which are followed by ahle men, who in most cases are not even conscious of foZlow ing them. Although I am free from illusion that I shall fully succeed even in doing this, I still hope that the little that is present here may please some people and have some application afterwards. " Bernard Bolzano (Wissenschaftslehre, 1929) The following book results from aseries of lectures on the mathematical theory of turbulence delivered by the author at the Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics during the past several years, and represents, in fact, a comprehensive account of the author's work with his graduate students in this field. It was my aim in writing this book to give to engineers and scientists a mathematical feeling for a subject, which because of its nonlinear character has resisted mathematical analysis for many years. On account vii i of its refractory nature this subject was categorized as one of seven "elementary catastrophes". The material presented here is designed for a first graduate course in turbulence. The complete course has been taught in one semester.