University of Glasgow makes breakthrough in understanding of turbulence

A mathematician at the University of Glasgow is helping to find an answer to one of the last unsolved problems in classical mechanics. Andrew Baggaley, of the University's School of Mathematics and Statistics, has published a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters ,which extends our understanding of the chaotic motion of fluids, commonly known as turbulence. The incredibly complex ways in which liquids and gases move and interact has proven very difficult for scientists to understand and predict. A better understanding of turbulence in fluids would be tremendously helpful to a wide range of fields including weather forecasting, aerospace engineering and astronomy. Baggaley has developed a mathematical model of how liquid helium behaves on the quantum scale when cooled to just a few degrees above absolute zero (-273°C). At such extremely low temperature, liquid helium contains a both a normal fluid with an element of viscosity or friction but also what is known as a 'superfluid' - a rare state of liquid matter which is entirely frictionless. Detailed computer simulations of this mathematical model help to understand the link between the apparently very different behaviours of superfluids on the quantum scale and more familiar classical, viscous, fluids all around us.