Resource letter TF-1: Turbulence in fluids

This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on fully developed turbulence in fluids. I is restricted to mechanically driven turbulence in an incompressible fluid described by the Navier-Stokes equations of hydrodynamics, and places greatest emphasis on fundamental physical questions. Journal articles and books are cited for the following topics: the Navier-Stokes. equations, qualitative aspects of turbulence, the 1941 Kolmogorov theory, intermittency and small scale structure, time correlations and pressure; with brief mention of two-dimensional turbulence, passive scalars in turbulence, and the turbulent boundary layer. Turbulent fluid flows are ubiquitous in the atmosphere, the oceans, and the stars. They also occur in a wide variety of engineering applications. Most studies of turbulence have an applied objective, whether this application be to engineering, to geophysics, to astrophysics, or to weather predicition, But there is a basic problem in physics underlying all of these applications. This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature relevant to this problem. (C) 2000 American Association of Physics Teachers.