mixing length

mixing length

[′mik·siŋ ‚leŋkth] (physics) A mean length of travel, characteristic of a particular motion, over which an eddy maintains its identity; it is analogous to the mean free path of a molecule; physically, the idea implies that mixing occurs by discontinuous steps, that fluctuations which arise as eddies with different characteristics wander about, and that the mixing is done almost entirely by the small eddies.