creators_name: Dimotakis, Paul E. creators_id: Dimotakis-P-E type: article datestamp: 2005-05-17 lastmod: 2008-07-05 02:53:39 metadata_visibility: show title: Turbulent mixing ispublished: pub subjects: cls full_text_status: public keywords: turbulence, entrainment, scalar dispersion, diffusion, reacting flow note: "Reprinted, with permission, from the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, Volume 37 copyright 2005 by Annual Reviews, www.annualreviews.org" Support for this reviewbyAFOSRGrants F49620–01–1–0006 and FA9550–04–1–0020, the DOE/Caltech ASCI/ASAP subcontract B341492, and the Caltech John K. Northrop Chair is gratefully acknowledged. I would also like to acknowledge both recent and previous discussions with and assistance by J. Adkins and W.R.C. Phillips on ocean mixing; D. Arnett, H. Bethe, and R. Lovelace on astrophysics and supernova explosions; J.E. Broadwell and M.G. Mungal on passive-scalar mixing; A.W. Cook, T.W. Mattner, D.I. Meiron, and P.L. Miller on RTI flow; H.J.S. Fernando, A. Mahalov, and J. Riley on mixing in stably stratified flows; H. Lam on scalar transport and diffusion; H.W. Liepmann on turbulence; C. Pantano on mixing and combustion dynamics; T.W. Mattner and D.I. Pullin on sub-grid scale modeling; and R.A. Shaw on particle and cloud dynamics; as well as assistance with the text by J.M. Bergthorson and D.I. Pullin. abstract: The ability of turbulent flows to effectively mix entrained fluids to a molecular scale is a vital part of the dynamics of such flows, with wide-ranging consequences in nature and engineering. It is a considerable experimental, theoretical, modeling, and computational challenge to capture and represent turbulent mixing which, for high Reynolds number (Re) flows, occurs across a spectrum of scales of considerable span. This consideration alone places high-Re mixing phenomena beyond the reach of direct simulation, especially in high Schmidt number fluids, such as water, in which species diffusion scales are one and a half orders of magnitude smaller than the smallest flow scales. The discussion below attempts to provide an overview of turbulent mixing; the attendant experimental, theoretical, and computational challenges; and suggests possible future directions for progress in this important field. date: 2005 date_type: published publication: Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics volume: 37 number: 1 pagerange: 329-356 id_number: CaltechAUTHORS:DIMarfm05 refereed: TRUE issn: 0066-4189 official_url: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:DIMarfm05 citation: Dimotakis, Paul E. (2005) Turbulent mixing. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 37 (1). pp. 329-356. ISSN 0066-4189 http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:DIMarfm05 document_url: http://authors.library.caltech.edu/284/1/DIMarfm.pdf