Fluid Dynamics Seminar: David Furbish, Vanderbilt University
Title: Flow and bedform dynamics in rivers and experiments: The bed instability problem
Date: Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Time: 1 pm
Location: ITS Conference Room, 472 Willamette Hall
David Furbish is a professor at Vanderbilt University in Earth and Environmental Science. His work involves the application of fluid mechanics and statistical mechanics to problems in geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology. This work combines theoretical, experimental, computational and field-based components aimed at understanding the dynamics of Earth surface systems spanning human to geomorphic time scales.
Summary:
A nice philosophical introduction to David’s approach to science may be found on his website:
“…in learning how to describe the behavior of mechanical systems, mostly we are initially exposed to deterministic examples. We study Newton’s laws as these pertain to simple particle systems, and then move on to the behavior of solids and fluids treated as continuous materials. The formalism is unambiguous, and describing the behavior of a well constrained system is in principle straightforward. Indeed, much (although not all) of the legacy of geophysics resides in the determinism of continuum mechanics. Perhaps it is therefore natural that we might envision that a mechanistic description of the behavior of a system implies that such a description ought to be, or perhaps only can be, a deterministic one. Such a perception represents a lost opportunity. The most elegant counterpoint example is the field of classical statistical mechanics — devoted specifically to the probabilistic (i.e., non-deterministic) treatment of the behavior of gas particle systems in order to justify the principles of thermodynamics — yet which is no less mechanical in its conceptualization of this behavior than, say, the application of Newton’s laws to the behavior of a deterministic system consisting of the interactions of a few billiard balls or the players of the solar system, or involving the motion of a Newtonian fluid subject to specific initial and boundary conditions.”
Please contact Leif Karlstrom if you would like to schedule a meeting with David.
