Description
Book SynopsisTurbulence is widely recognized as one of the outstanding problems of the physical sciences, but it still remains only partially understood despite having attracted the sustained efforts of many leading scientists for well over a century. In A Voyage Through Turbulence we are transported through a crucial period of the history of the subject via biographies of twelve of its great personalities, starting with Osborne Reynolds and his pioneering work of the 1880s. This book will provide absorbing reading for every scientist, mathematician and engineer interested in the history and culture of turbulence, as background to the intense challenges that this universal phenomenon still presents.
Trade Review"I highly recommend A Voyage Through Turbulence to all scientists, engineers, historians and philosophers of science, students, and to even the broader readership of anyone who is interested in the onset and nurturing of creative thoughts. Turbulence connoisseurs will savor devouring the book, but even the non-specialists will still get something utilitarian out of it." Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, AIAA Journal
"I greatly enjoyed reading this book. It succeeds admirably in combining introductions to the original ideas and observations of celebrated 20th century scientists together with their biographies, some written by authors who knew their subjects personally." Jonathan Healey, Mathematical Reviews
Table of ContentsList of contributors; Preface Peter Davidson, Yukio Kaneda, Keith Moffatt and Katepalli Sreenivasan; 1. Osborne Reynolds: a turbulent life Brian Launder and Derek Jackson; 2. Prandtl and the Göttingen school Eberhard Bodenschatz and Michael Eckert; 3. Theodore von Kármán A. Leonard and N. Peters; 4. G. I. Taylor: the inspiration behind the Cambridge school Katepalli Sreenivasan; 5. Lewis Fry Richardson Roberto Benzi; 6. The Russian school Gregory Falkovich; 7. Stanley Corrsin Charles Meneveau and James J. Riley; 8. George Batchelor: the post-war renaissance of research in turbulence H. K. Moffatt; 9. A. A. Townsend Ivan Marusic and Timothy B. Nickels; 10. Robert H. Kraichnan Gregory Eyink and Uriel Frisch; 11. Satish Dhawan Roddam Narasimha; 12. Philip G. Saffman Dale I. Pullin and Daniel I. Meiron; 13. Epilogue: a turbulence timeline Peter Davidson, Yukio Kaneda, Keith Moffatt and Katepalli Sreenivasan.
