In his famous Lectures on Physics, Richard Feynman reflected on a “physical problem that is common to many fields, that is very old, and that has not been solved. It is not the problem of finding new fundamental particles, but something left over from a long time ago—over a hundred years…. It is the analysis of circulating or turbulent fluids.”1 Even today in the age of supercomputers, the need for understanding, modeling, and predicting aspects of turbulent flows has, if anything, increased. Reliably simulating turbulent flows still requires more theoretical advances, and Feynman’s vision of “solving the problem of turbulence” remains elusive.
Turbulent flows are characterized by apparently random, chaotic motions. And they are everywhere: They govern the efficiency of gas turbine engines, the workhorses of modern power generation and aerospace propulsion, and of large-scale wind farms, a key technology for renewable energy (see the article by...
