STATISTICAL EVOLUTION OF CHAOTIC FLUID MIXING

We describe a new constitutive theory for two-phase how models of chao tic mixing layers, which form as two incompressible fluids interpenetr ate. This theory is compatible with arbitrary velocities of the edges of a mixing layer, and it gives analytic solutions for the distributio n of fluid variables across the layer in terms of these velocities. Ou r results are in agreement with all available data from planar Rayleig h-Taylor instability experiments. The model that we discuss can be emb edded in a larger system of two-phase flow equations in order to predi ct other important physical quantities, such as the fluid pressures an d internal energies in compressible mixing. [S0031-9007(97)04668-1].