Victor S. L'vov

Victor S. L'vov is a researcher in theoretical physics whose work includes turbulence, wave turbulence and nonlinear dynamical systems. His Weizmann Institute of Science research homepage identifies wave and hydrodynamic turbulence as central interests.^[ref]

In 1998 he and collaborators introduced an improved shell model of turbulence designed to reduce spurious correlations and oscillations between model scales. A shell model of turbulence replaces a spatially resolved velocity field by amplitudes $u_n$, which are complex numbers attached to wavenumbers $k_n=k_0{\lambda }^n$, $\lambda >1$. Nonlinear interactions transfer energy between shells, while forcing and viscosity supply and dissipate it. With $\lambda =2$, ten shell steps cover a factor of $1024$ in wavenumber: a small collection of variables can investigate an energy cascade spanning widely separated scales.^[ref]

This research makes a useful distinction between reproducing scale statistics and reproducing the full spatial geometry of a turbulent flow. The paper tests scaling and shell correlations in a deliberately reduced dynamical system; that success does not make it an exact replacement for the Navier-Stokes equations in arbitrary apparatus.