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3T350 Statistical Fluid Mechanics and Chaos 3 ECTS
Lecturers:
Prof. Federico Toschi
Prof. Willem van de Water
Objectives
[no learning objectives have been formulated yet]
Contents
Many flow regimes in Nature or in industrial applications display unpredictable behavior.
This course serves as an introduction to chaos and to modern techniques for the study of
the statistical properties of fluid flows in chaotic regime. To begin with, we will study the
basis of chaos: the disordered behavior of nonlinear dynamical systems. Even very
simple but nonlinear systems can display chaotic and unpredictable behaviour. The
emphasis will be on a scaling description, a concept beautifully illustrated by fractals.
Regarding chaotic fluids the focus will be on both Eulerian and Lagrangian chaos.
Central to the course is the exposure to the modern literature. During one half of the
course basic concepts are introduced, and in the other half each participant presents an
article on chaos or chaotic flows that appeared in recent years in Physical Review Letters.
Of course, adequate coaching is offered.
Recommended prior knowledge:
3T280 Turbulent Flow Phenomena