Dr. William Layton, 16 October, 2006
  Kayaking and fluid flow models:  from laminar to turbulent!
Abstract: This  talk will consider predictive models of fluid motion and illustrate the motion with some  applications  to whitewater kayaking (movies will be included). The first half will present the famous Bernoulli law  for laminar flow (which explains lift in airplanes and drop in kayaks). The first half assumes only vector analysis. The second half will move to the more interesting case of turbulence. The famous K41 theory of laminar, isotropic turbulence will be explained. If you know Fourier series, you will follow this explanation.  Finally,  the insight this theory gives for predictive, reduced models of turbulence will be described.


Biographical sketch:  William (Bill) Layton is a 1980 PhD from the University of Tennessee, and has been at the University of Pittsburgh since 1986, where he is currently Professor of Mathematics. His research interests include numerical analysis, turbulence and large eddy simulation (an approach to modeling turbulence). He has published over 100 research papers and has his second book on the way to the publisher.
        He particularly enjoys whitewater kayaking with two of his daughters (who are real experts), teaching at all levels, generally just helping students and telling stories.