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Some early ideas about turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2006

G. I. Taylor
G. I. Taylor
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Apart from the well known pictorial studies of eddies in a stream by Leonardo da Vinci, it seems to me that other engineers were the first to make any progress in the study of turbulence. Except for Osborne Reynolds (1883) they limited their work to empirical formulae giving the results of hydraulic experiments in which they measured mean flow distributions resulting from turbulence. Osborne Reynolds seems to have been the first to show that with given boundaries the flow can be steady up to a certain speed and then suddenly become turbulent. This was a great advance and contributed to the urge by Orr (1907), Rayleigh (1915) and many others to study mathematically the stability of steady flow reacute;gimes. Meanwhile the meteorologists were attracted to the field. Arthur Schuster, a wealthy man who was professor of physics at Manchester University, wanted to encourage a mathematician to study meteorology and try to introduce mathematical reasoning into what seemed almost pure empiricism. He set aside provision for a readership in dynamical meteorology. I was appointed in 1911.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , 26 March 1970 , pp. 3 - 11
Copyright
© 1970 Cambridge University Press

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References

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