Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch and enjoy learning about fluids!
Friday, February 5, 2016
3110, Etcheverry Hall, 13:00-14:00
Dr. Megan S. Davies Wykes (Courant Institute, NYU)
Measuring mixing efficiency in stratified flows
Quantifying the efficiency of mixing in stratified flows has been studied for the last twenty years and mixing efficiency is an important quantity in many ocean and climate models. In the past it has been common practice to assume a value for the mixing efficiency of 20%. However, recent laboratory experiments of Rayleigh-Taylor instability between two otherwise stably-stratified layers have shown that mixing efficiencies as high as 75% are possible. This experimental research and accompanying computational simulations have revealed important aspects about the way that energy removed by mixing is measured, leading to new questions about how best to measure and describe turbulent mixing in stratified flows.
Acknowledgments
Prof. Graham Fleming (Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)