Equations of motion and conservation laws in a theory of stable stratified turbulence

This paper is part of an invited talk given at the international conference 'Turbulent Mixing and Beyond'. We consider non-isothermal fluid flows and revise simplifications of basic hydrodynamic equations for such flows, arriving eventually at a generalization of the Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation valid for arbitrary equation of state including both non-ideal gases as well as liquids. The proposed approach is based on a suggested general definition of potential temperature. Special attention is paid to the energy conservation principle: the proposed approximation exactly preserves the total mechanical energy by approximate equations of motion. It is emphasized explicitly the importance for any turbulent boundary layer model to respect the conservation laws.