 Mixing-length closure

A mixing-length closure uses a prescribed mixing length $\ell$ to approximate turbulent transport. For mean shear ${\partial }_{z}U$, a standard model gives eddy viscosity ${\nu }_t={\ell }^2|{\partial }_{z}U|$ and down-gradient Reynolds stress. Scalar-diffusion versions replace momentum transport by an appropriate scalar flux. The choice of length and correlations is a modelling assumption rather than an exact closure of the Navier-Stokes equation.