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When a fluid is flowing through a closed channel such as a pipe or between two flat plates, either of two types of flow may occur depending on the velocity and viscosity of the fluid: laminar flow or turbulent flow. Laminar flow occurs at lower velocities, below a threshold at which the flow becomes turbulent.
Also of interest is the velocity profile shape which is useful in differentiating laminar from turbulent boundary layer flows. The profile shape refers to the y-behavior of the velocity profile as it transitions to u e (x). Figure 1: Schematic drawing depicting fluid flow entering the bottom half of a 2-D channel with plate-to-plate spacing of H.
The laminar boundary is a very smooth flow, while the turbulent boundary layer contains swirls or "eddies." The laminar flow creates less skin friction drag than the turbulent flow, but is less stable. Boundary layer flow over a wing surface begins as a smooth laminar flow. As the flow continues back from the leading edge, the laminar boundary ...
law of the wall, horizontal velocity near the wall with mixing length model. In fluid dynamics, the law of the wall (also known as the logarithmic law of the wall) states that the average velocity of a turbulent flow at a certain point is proportional to the logarithm of the distance from that point to the "wall", or the boundary of the fluid region.
A schematic diagram of the Blasius flow profile. The streamwise velocity component () / is shown, as a function of the similarity variable .. Using scaling arguments, Ludwig Prandtl [1] argued that about half of the terms in the Navier-Stokes equations are negligible in boundary layer flows (except in a small region near the leading edge of the plate).
With respect to laminar and turbulent flow regimes: laminar flow occurs at low Reynolds numbers, where viscous forces are dominant, and is characterized by smooth, constant fluid motion; turbulent flow occurs at high Reynolds numbers and is dominated by inertial forces, which tend to produce chaotic eddies, vortices and other flow instabilities.
In case of laminar flow, the velocity profile in the fully developed region is parabolic but in the case of turbulent flow it gets a little flatter due to vigorous mixing in radial direction and eddy motion. The velocity profile remains unchanged in the fully developed region. Hydrodynamic Fully Developed velocity profile Laminar Flow :
A reasonable assessment of whether the boundary layer will be laminar or turbulent can be made by calculating the Reynolds number of the local flow conditions. Separation occurs in flow that is slowing down, with pressure increasing, after passing the thickest part of a streamline body or passing through a widening passage, for example.