Turbulent mixing and beyond

Abstract

Turbulence is a supermixer. Turbulent mixing has immense consequences for physical phenomena spanning astrophysical to atomistic scales under both high- and low-energy-density conditions. It influences thermonuclear fusion in inertial and magnetic confinement systems; governs dynamics of supernovae, accretion disks and explosions; dominates stellar convection, planetary interiors and mantle-lithosphere tectonics; affects premixed and non-premixed combustion; controls standard turbulent flows (wall-bounded and free—subsonic, supersonic as well as hypersonic); as well as atmospheric and oceanic phenomena (which themselves have important effects on climate). In most of these circumstances, the mixing phenomena are driven by non-equilibrium dynamics. While each article in this collection dwells on a specific problem, the purpose here is to seek a few unified themes amongst diverse phenomena.