IAM-PIMS-MITACS Distinguished Colloquium: Transport and Mixing in Complex and Turbulent Flows

Turbulence and other complex flows are often characterized by their transport and mixing properties. Turbulence can greatly enhance molecular viscosity for the transport of momentum, and molecular diffusion coefficients for the transport of heat, chemical concentrations, etc. Such flows are usually too complicated to study exactly, and they are often extremely challenging for direct numerical computations. Nevertheless, rigorous analysis of the fundamental equations of motion can yield qualitatively and quantitatively precise estimates of turbulent transport properties that can be compared with theories, experiments, and simulations.