ArgumentDuring the interwar period research on turbulence met with interest from different areas: in aeronautical engineering turbulence became a subject of experimental study in wind tunnels; in naval architecture and hydraulic engineering turbulence research was on the agenda because of its role for skin friction; applied mathematicians and theoretical physicists struggled with the problem to determine the onset of turbulence from the fundamental hydrodynamic equations; experimental physicists developed techniques to measure the velocity fluctuations of turbulent flows. In this paper I describe the rise of turbulence in the 1920s and 1930s as a research field under the label of applied mechanics. Although the focus is on Germany, the international development of this research field is illuminated by the role which Ludwig Prandtl played as its acknowledged “chief” (G. I. Taylor). I argue that the multifaceted character of this research field calls for an epistemology and historiography which intrinsically takes the interaction of science and engineering into account.

中文翻译：

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1920 年代和 1930 年代数学、物理和工程之间的湍流研究

论据在两次世界大战期间，湍流的研究引起了不同领域的兴趣：在航空工程中，湍流成为风洞实验研究的主题；在造船和水利工程中，湍流研究因其对皮肤摩擦的作用而被提上日程；应用数学家和理论物理学家努力解决这个问题，以确定基本流体动力学方程中湍流的开始；实验物理学家开发了测量湍流速度波动的技术。在本文中，我将 1920 年代和 1930 年代湍流的兴起描述为应用力学标签下的一个研究领域。虽然重点是德国，Ludwig Prandtl 作为其公认的“首席”（GI Taylor）所扮演的角色阐明了这一研究领域的国际发展。我认为，这个研究领域的多面性要求认识论和历史学本质上考虑到科学和工程的相互作用。