Professor Laurette Tuckerman: Patterns of Turbulence AbstractThe greatest mystery in fluid dynamics is probably transition to turbulence. The simplest shear flow, plane Couette flow – the flow between parallel plates moving at different velocities – undergoes transition to turbulence, despite being linearly stable for all Reynolds numbers. Nor does this transition take place viaturbulence growing progressively stronger as the Reynolds number is increased. Instead, the transitional flow takes the form of a remarkable steady pattern of alternating wide turbulent and laminar bands. Numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations display a rich variety of variants of these patterns, including spatio-temporal intermittency, branching and travelling states, and localized states analogous to spots. Strong flow along the band boundaries play a symbiotic role with the turbulence. As the Reynolds number is decreased, the turbulent bands become isolated and increasingly sparse. Complete laminarization takes place via their disappearance characterized by the 2D directed percolation scenario.BiographyLaurette Tuckerman is a senior researcher at PMMH (Physique et Mecanique des Milieux Heterogenes), an institute affiliated with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), ESPCI and Sorbonne University. Prior to this, she was at the University of Texas at Austin and she obtained her bachelors and PhD degrees from Princeton and MIT. She studies hydrodynamic instabilities (such as those in Couette flows, thermal convection, and Faraday waves) using the methods of computational fluid dynamics and of bifurcation theory. She also studies the laminar-turbulent patterns which occur during transition to turbulence in wall-bounded shear flows. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Euromech. May 01 2025 15.00 - 16.00 Professor Laurette Tuckerman: Patterns of Turbulence Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Professor Laurette Tuckerman in series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Elm Lecture Theatre, Nucleus, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 2 September 2026
Professor Laurette Tuckerman: Patterns of Turbulence AbstractThe greatest mystery in fluid dynamics is probably transition to turbulence. The simplest shear flow, plane Couette flow – the flow between parallel plates moving at different velocities – undergoes transition to turbulence, despite being linearly stable for all Reynolds numbers. Nor does this transition take place viaturbulence growing progressively stronger as the Reynolds number is increased. Instead, the transitional flow takes the form of a remarkable steady pattern of alternating wide turbulent and laminar bands. Numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations display a rich variety of variants of these patterns, including spatio-temporal intermittency, branching and travelling states, and localized states analogous to spots. Strong flow along the band boundaries play a symbiotic role with the turbulence. As the Reynolds number is decreased, the turbulent bands become isolated and increasingly sparse. Complete laminarization takes place via their disappearance characterized by the 2D directed percolation scenario.BiographyLaurette Tuckerman is a senior researcher at PMMH (Physique et Mecanique des Milieux Heterogenes), an institute affiliated with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), ESPCI and Sorbonne University. Prior to this, she was at the University of Texas at Austin and she obtained her bachelors and PhD degrees from Princeton and MIT. She studies hydrodynamic instabilities (such as those in Couette flows, thermal convection, and Faraday waves) using the methods of computational fluid dynamics and of bifurcation theory. She also studies the laminar-turbulent patterns which occur during transition to turbulence in wall-bounded shear flows. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of Euromech. May 01 2025 15.00 - 16.00 Professor Laurette Tuckerman: Patterns of Turbulence Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Professor Laurette Tuckerman in series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy. Elm Lecture Theatre, Nucleus, King's Buildings This article was published on Wednesday 2 September 2026
May 01 2025 15.00 - 16.00 Professor Laurette Tuckerman: Patterns of Turbulence Edinburgh Fluid Dynamics Group welcomes Professor Laurette Tuckerman in series of colloquia co-funded by the Schools of Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy.
