Fundamentals of Turbulent Mixing and Kinetics

Mixing in one form or another has been used as a scapegoat in process analysis, especially when chemical reaction is involved. Whether the blame is justified or not can only be resolved by an understanding of the mechanism of mixing and its interaction with chemical kinetics. This review will attempt to set the stage for the two reviews that follow. To do so requires that the source of the mixing be described. To be considered here is turbulent mixing; laminar mixing, as a combination of folding and molecular diffusion, will not be treated as it was considered in some detail in the first review. The material in this review is a composite from several recent sources 1 and should be pictured as an abbreviated introduction to the field of turbulent motion, mixing and kinetics. Without the references cited above it is incomplete. The purpose in bringing the material together is to provide an introduction to those unfamiliar with the field.