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The Reynolds number is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces within a fluid that is subjected to relative internal movement due to different fluid velocities. A region where these forces change behavior is known as a boundary layer, such as the bounding surface in the interior of a pipe.
The Reynolds and Womersley Numbers are also used to calculate the thicknesses of the boundary layers that can form from the fluid flow’s viscous effects. The Reynolds number is used to calculate the convective inertial boundary layer thickness that can form, and the Womersley number is used to calculate the transient inertial boundary thickness that can form.
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.
For example, it is used to calculate flow through circular and non-circular tubes in order to examine flow conditions (i.e., the Reynolds number). In those cases, the characteristic length is the diameter of the pipe or, in case of non-circular tubes, its hydraulic diameter D h {\displaystyle D_{h}} :
The Reynolds number Re is taken to be Re = V D / ν, where V is the mean velocity of fluid flow, D is the pipe diameter, and where ν is the kinematic viscosity μ / ρ, with μ the fluid's Dynamic viscosity, and ρ the fluid's density. The pipe's relative roughness ε / D, where ε is the pipe's effective roughness height and D the pipe ...
The specific calculation of the Reynolds number, and the values where laminar flow occurs, will depend on the geometry of the flow system and flow pattern. The common example is flow through a pipe , where the Reynolds number is defined as
As an example for pipe flows, with the Reynolds number based on the pipe diameter: =. Here l is the turbulence or eddy length scale, given below, and c μ is a k – ε model parameter whose value is typically given as 0.09;
In fluid dynamics, the entrance length is the distance a flow travels after entering a pipe before the flow becomes fully developed. [1] Entrance length refers to the length of the entry region, the area following the pipe entrance where effects originating from the interior wall of the pipe propagate into the flow as an expanding boundary layer.