Experiments on Unsteady Turbulent Pipe Flow

Abstract

The paper explores the time-wise evolution of selected turbulence parameters during gravity-driven flow establishment of incompressible fluids in rigid circular pipes. Two initial conditions are considered: flow starting from rest, passing through laminar-to-turbulent transition, and terminating in a turbulent steady state; and transient flow between two turbulent steady states. It is found that, in the second case, the properties considered, i.e., local temporal mean velocity and its transverse distribution, axial turbulence intensity, and wall shear stress, are monotonically increasing with time. However, for flow starting from rest, all properties are strongly affected by the development of turbulence. In particular, at the critical moment when laminar-to-turbulent transition is complete, the wall shear stress changes abruptly from one to the other, identifying wall shear stress as a very sensitive indicator of criticality.