School of Mathematics

Jacob Page awarded ERC Starting Grant

Jacob Page has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant "MLTURB - A new understanding of turbulence via a machine-learnt dynamical systems theory". Turbulence at very large scales is a complex, nonlinear problem of fundamental scientific and societal importance. Turbulent computations often rely on a "subgrid" model for the smaller, dissipative scales of motion. However, accurate simulation and prediction in the large-scale flows of paramount industrial and geophysical importance requires a subgrid which covers a greater range of scales — and hence must encode more of the turbulent dynamics. There is, therefore, a pressing need for answers to long-standing questions on the dynamics of energy transfer mechanisms in strongly turbulent fluids. Jacob, and his team of postdocs and PhD students, will focus on establishing this new understanding, focusing on both the dynamical processes at play in the turbulent energy cascade and the rare, small-scale intermittent bursting events which are associated with extreme local values of drag or heat transfer.