DYMAMICS OF FLUID FLOW  

In case of round pipes;

For falling between the two limits, the flow may switch between laminar or turbulent conditions in a random fashion and is characterized as "transitional flow".

The physical interpretation of the flow characteristics is shown in Fig. 1. It represents the x- component of velocity as a function of time at a point ‘A' in the flow. For laminar flow, there is only one component of the velocity, the streak-line is a well defined and coincides with streamline . The turbulent flow is accompanied by random components velocity fluctuations relative to pipe axis and the flow is predominantly unsteady.
     
 

Fig. 1: Flow characteristics in a pipe.

     
Prev