Dwight Barkley (University of Warwick)

A Fluid Mechanic’s Analysis of Tea-cup Singularity

One of the most fundamental issues in fluid dynamics is whether or not an initially smooth fluid flow can evolve over time to arrive at a singularity — a state for which the classical equations of fluid mechanics break down and the flow field no longer makes physical sense. While proof remains an open question, numerical evidence strongly suggests that a singularity arises at the boundary of a flow like that found in a stirred cup of tea. The goal of this talk is to explain, from a fluid-mechanics perspective, why.