Hydrodynamic Instabilities and the Transition to Turbulence

Abstract

Although much of the universe is filled with fluid in turbulent motion, the processes by which turbulence develops are poorly understood. When a fluid is driven away from thermal and mechanical equilibrium, it will often undergo a sequence of instabilities, each of which leads to a change in the spatial or temporal structure of the flow. The nature of these instabilities, which sometimes lead to turbulence, is discussed in this volume. Although not all of the book is strictly introductory, the authors have made the majority of it accessible to physicists, mathematicians, engineers and graduate students who do not have significant background in fluid dynamics and advanced mathematics