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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Buoyancy forces result from density variations, often due to temperature variations, in the presence of gravity. Buoyancy-driven fluid flows shape the weather, ocean dynamics and climate, and the structure of the earth and stars. In 1916 Lord Rayleigh published a paper entitled "On Convection Currents in a Horizontal Layer of Fluid, when the Higher Temperature is on the Under Side" that introduced a minimal mathematical model of buoyancy-driven fluid flow-now known as Rayleigh-Bénard convection that has served for a century as one of the primary paradigms for nonlinear science, dynamical pattern formation, chaos and turbulence. In this presentation, following an introduction to and history of Rayleigh's model and review of some applications of convection, we describe recent progress and open challenges for mathematical analysis in the strongly nonlinear regime of turbulent convection.
Host: Robert Ecke