Nonlinear Phenomena in Complex Systems, 2006, Vol.9, No.2, pp.188-193

NONLINEAR PHENOMENA IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS
An Interdisciplinary Journal

2006, Vol.9, No.2, pp.188-193

Real Space Approach to Fully Developed Turbulence.
Peter Mertens and Hans Effinger

We give a brief review of a real space approach to the theoretical study of fully developed turbulence, emphasizing the work done with and inspired by Siegfried Grossmann. We argue that the nature of turbulent flow (eddies and other localized structures), the driving mechanism (boundary layers), the behaviour of the structure function with its sharp junction of the inertial and the dissipation ranges, and last but not least the underlying Navier-Stokes Equations (NSE) themselves (with the all important inertial term nonlinearity being local in real space), make it more plausible to find the physical insights needed for a better understanding of fully developed turbulence in real space studies, even though the Fourier-transformed NSE may lend themselves easier to numerical studies.
Key words: fully developed turbulence, variable range decomposition

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