Models


The extreme complexity of turbulent fluid dynamics and of molecular chemistry provides significant challenges for the development of predictive models. Turbulent mixing is significant in combustion because air and fuel must be present together in appropriate proportions for burning to occur. Even in a burning flame, wrinkling of the surface by turbulent fluid motions creates more flame area and accelerates the burning.


Alan Kerstein has developed a statistical approach that shows promise for modeling turbulence. His method is novel because it focuses on one dimension, and yet reliably predicts diverse processes in a physically sound manner. The calculations are highly parallel, so they can be affordably run on distributed clusters of computers. One dimensional turbulence models are actively being developed for large eddy simulations of combustion, as well as other applications spanning astrophysics, inertial confinement fusion, climatology, and oceanography. In other modeling work, Bill Ashurst studies combustion theory by modeling such things as Darrieus Landau instability and droplet formation.