Turbulent suppression of spinodal decomposition

Light scattering experiments reveal a strong suppression of phase separation near the critical point of a vigorously stirred binary liquid mixture. For stirring Reynolds numbers R ranging from 6. 0 10^3 to 4. 5 10^3, the apparent critical temperature is depressed by 1 mK to 50 mK. This temperature depression T₂^' can be fitted to a power law T₂^'R^ where 2. The magnitude of T₂^' is consistent with simple models which attribute the effect to the suppression of composition fluctuations by shear; however, these models predict 0. 80 in contrast to the observed value of 2. Below the apparent critical temperature the turbidity changes significantly throughout a temperature range of tens of millikelvin following a power law ({T₂-T) }^ where increases from 1 to 6 as R is increased.