In
fluid dynamics
In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) a ...
, the
fluid flow is often decomposed into a mean flow and
deviations from the
mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the '' ar ...
. The
averaging can be done either in space or in time, or by
ensemble averaging
In machine learning, particularly in the creation of artificial neural networks, ensemble averaging is the process of creating multiple models and combining them to produce a desired output, as opposed to creating just one model. Frequently an ens ...
.
Example
Calculation of the mean flow may often be as simple as the
mathematical mean: simply add up the given flow rates and then divide the final figure by the number of initial readings.
For example, given two
discharges (''Q'') of 3 m³/s and 5 m³/s, we can use these flow rates ''Q'' to calculate the mean flow rate ''Q''
mean. Which in this case is ''Q''
mean = 4 m³/s.
See also
*
Generalized Lagrangian mean
References
*
*
{{fluiddynamics-stub
Fluid dynamics