Statistical Fluid Mechanics, Volume I

""If ever a field needed a definitive book, it is the study of turbulence; if ever a book on turbulence could be called definitive, it is this book."" - ScienceWritten by two of Russia's most eminent and productive scientists working in the fields of turbulence, oceanography, and atmospheric physics, this two-volume survey is renowned for its clarity as well as its comprehensive treatment. Volume One begins with an outline of laminar and turbulent flow. The remainder of the book treats a variety of aspects of turbulence: its statistical and Lagrangian descriptions, shear flows near surfaces and free turbulence, the behavior of thermally stratified media, and diffusion.Volume Two continues and concludes the presentation. Topics include spectral functions, homogeneous fields, isotropic random fields, isotropic turbulence, self-preservation hypotheses, spectral energy transfer, the Millionshchikov hypothesis, acceleration fields, equations for higher moments and the closure problem, and turbulence in a compressible fluid. Additional subjects include general concepts of the local structure of turbulence at high Reynolds numbers, the theory of fully developed turbulence, the propagation of electromagnetic and acoustic waves through a turbulent medium, and the twinkling of stars. The book closes with a discussion of the functional formulation of the problem of turbulence, presenting the equations for the characteristic functional and methods for their solution.