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8 - George Batchelor: the post-war renaissance of research in turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2011

By
H.K. Moffatt
Edited by
Peter A. Davidson ,
Yukio Kaneda ,
Keith Moffatt  and
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan
H.K. Moffatt
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Peter A. Davidson
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Yukio Kaneda
Affiliation:
Nagoya University, Japan
Keith Moffatt
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan
Affiliation:
New York University
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Summary

Introduction

George Batchelor (1920–2000), whose portrait (1984) by the artist Rupert Shephard is shown in Figure 8.1, was undoubtedly one of the great figures of fluid dynamics of the twentieth century. His contributions to two major areas of the subject, turbulence and low-Reynolds-number microhydrodynamics, were of seminal quality and have had a lasting impact. At the same time, he exerted great influence in his multiple roles as founder Editor of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, co-Founder and first Chairman of EUROMECH, and Head of the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP) in Cambridge from its foundation in 1959 until his retirement in 1983.

I focus in this chapter on his contributions to the theory of turbulence, in which he was intensively involved over the period 1945 to 1960. His research monograph The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence, published in 1953, appeared at a time when he was still optimistic that a complete solution to ‘the problem of turbulence’ might be found. During this period, he attracted an outstanding group of research students and post-docs, many from his native Australia, and Senior Visitors from all over the world, to work with him in Cambridge on turbulence. By 1960, however, it had become apparent to him that insurmountable mathematical difficulties in dealing adequately with the closure problem lay ahead.

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A Voyage Through Turbulence , pp. 276 - 304
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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