Glossary
Glossary of Terms for Fluid Dynamics
Add as you feel necessary. When needed, provide a link to a reference page or other terms.
Purpose: Many of the terms on this list have multiple definitions depending on context. The context for these definitions is geophysical and environmental fluid dynamics.
Disclaimer: this list is mostly the result of googling, and as such should not be referenced directly.
- Barotropic fluid
- A fluid in which density is only a function of pressure.
- Baroclinic motion
- Motion caused by the misallignment of the surfaces of constant pressure and constant density.
- - plane
- In the f-plane approximation, the Coriolis parameter, f, is assumed constant. The - plane approximation assumes f varies linearly with latitude. Wikipedia's entry on this is a good one.
- Chaotic advection
- The advection of particles under a chaotic flow map or dynamical system.
- Characteristic scale
- This scale is context dependent. In an engineering situation like a jet out of a small hole one scale is given by the size of the hole, and another, less easily quantifiable scale will be the length over which the jet mixes with the ambient fluid.
- Correlation Time
- The time it takes for the auto correlation function of a process to decrease by a given amount.
- Energy cascade
- When the coherent structures of the continuum move to smaller and smaller scales until viscosity causes dissipation.
- Halocline
- Region with a high gradient in salinity. See also Pycnocline and Thermocline
- Pycnocline
- Region with a high gradient in density. See also Halocline and Thermocline
- Thermocline
- Region with a high gradient in temperature. See also Halocline and Pycnocline
