Discrete Models in Fluids

Abstract

With some basis now in statistical mechanics, we turn to fluid mechanics. We want a representation of a fluid’s flow compatible with our Monte Carlo tools. We will develop these along two lines of thought. Our first is to represent the vorticity field of a fluid flow as a collection of point particles. This is the vortex gas model, a dynamical system we can treat just as we do any ordinary problem of mechanics. In the next chapter we will create the lattice gas model, a system based on approximating the vorticity field with a function continuous almost everywhere.