Why Laminar Flow is AWESOME - Smarter Every Day 208 (Patreon)
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If you've ever seen flowing water look frozen like glass... that's Laminar flow
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Personally, I find calculating Reynolds number to be quite difficult.
It's done differently depending on what type of flow you have. A pipe is calculated different than an airplane wing etc.
Some fluid dynamicists would tell you that it's an exact science. I personally feel that it's a bit subjective.
The most difficult parameter to nail down in my humble opinion is the characteristic length.
It's pretty easy for pipes, you just measure the diameter... but wings, plates, vortices...get complicated quickly.
You'll notice in the video I refrained from saying anything like
"Flow is laminar when Reynolds number is less than XXX" or
"Flow is turbulent when Reynolds number is more than XXX".
There are different schools of thought on this. Typically the transition between laminar flow and turbulent flow occurs somewhere between 2100 and 4000 (Reynolds number is unitless).
Laminar Flow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_flow
Reynolds Number:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number
Osborne Reynolds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_Reynolds
Feeling froggy? Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations to solve on your lunch break:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds-averaged_Navier%E2%80%93Stokes_equations
Other Fluid Dynamics videos on Smarter Every Day:
Vortex Collision
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVbdbVhzcM4
Shockwave Schlieren:
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=BPwdlEgLn5Q
The walking water mystery