Chaos and Turbulence

Abstract

In the 1970s the turbulence problem became associated with the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems, in the popular parlance often labelled as “chaos theory”. New concepts like “strange attractors” and “fractals” resulted in the view that turbulence may be regarded as a manifestation of “deterministic chaos”. While certain cases of turbulent flows appeared amenable to dynamical systems approaches, the wealth of turbulence remained difficult to be reconciled with the new paradigm. In 1989 the dynamical systems approach became subject of controversial debate at a conference under the title “Whither Turbulence”.