LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — While some may only associate turbulence with an airplane’s “fasten seatbelt” sign, its impact is felt from weather patterns to the spread of pollution in our oceans — and MSU researchers will now be able to take a closer look at how it works.
Michigan State University announced Wednesday it has received a $30 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish a research center to study turbulence, where a gas or liquid behaves chaotically and its otherwise orderly flow patterns break down.
Turbulence remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the field of fluid dynamics, which studies how liquids and gases move. While scientists can model turbulence via the Navier-Stokes equations, the underlying mechanics behind it remain unknown…