GAFD
This part of the NSF Grand Challenge project in Coupled Fields and GAFD turbulence operates in the latter section and deals with the fluid dynamics of compressible, as opposed to incompressible, fluids. The difference lies in the fact that now the density depends on both the pressure and temperature in the equation of state of the fluid and the pressure becomes a full state variable. In incompressible fluid dynamics, the pressure is a diagnostic quantity only, whereas in compressible it is prognostic. This full variation of the density means that problems with stratification become more complicated.
The following projects are being investigated:
Rotating convection on f-plane
Nonrotating compressible turbulent convection
This page prepared by Nic Brummell, Laboratory for Computational Dynamics, University of Colorado.