Lecture 27, March 12, 2004

• Reminder Assignment 3 now due Monday

Today
• Overview of ch7
• Begin chapter 8 – Internal Flows

Internal flows are constrained by walls entirely,

instead of being a surface exposed to a free stream
flow. We have a lot of the background to understand
the ramifications of this, but we need to consider a
few key differences.

The Reynolds number still governs the flow regime

(laminar/turbulent), but it is based on a different length
scale, the pipe diameter (or hydraulic diameter for
non-circular sections). This results in a very different
number for transition to turbulence.

Turbulence can be expected for Re greater than

about 2300 using this length scale, as compared to
500,000 when we used the distance along the plate
as a length scale.

For constant density flow, conservation of mass

dictates that Um must remain constant.
Clearly the no slip condition at the wall means that
umax > Um.

Consider a developing flow, as in the figure on the

board. Once the boundary layers from opposite walls
meet, the flow is considered fully developed and the
velocity profiles no longer change in the flow direction.
There is still a pressure gradient though, as the
pressure forces must balance the friction forces on
the pipe walls (there are no other significant forces
acting).

If the velocity profiles in and out are the same, then

the momentum flux in is the same as the momentum
flux out, and conservation of momentum (Newton’s
Second Law) reduces to a force balance.