Dynamical Systems Approach to Turbulence

Book excerpt: In recent decades, turbulence has evolved into a very active field of theoretical physics. The origin of this development is the approach to turbulence from the point of view of deterministic dynamical systems, and this book shows how concepts developed for low dimensional chaotic systems are applied to turbulent states. This book centers around a number of important simplified models for turbulent behavior in systems ranging from fluid motion (classical turbulence) to chemical reactions and interfaces in disordered systems. The theory of fractals and multifractals now plays a major role in turbulence research, and turbulent states are being studied as important dynamical states of matter occurring also in systems outside the realm of hydrodynamics. The book contains simplified models of turbulent behavior, notably shell models, coupled map lattices, amplitude equations and interface models.