Turbulence Transition in Pipe Flow

2006/12/20 by Bruno Eckhardt, Tobias M. Schneider, Björn Hof +2 · 571 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · Mathematics · #Classical mechanics #Combustion and flame dynamics #Couette flow #Flow (mathematics) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Geometry #Hagen–Poiseuille equation #Instability #K-epsilon turbulence model #Laminar flow #Laminar sublayer #Mathematics #Mechanics #Open-channel flow #Physics #Pipe flow #Plane (geometry) #Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics #Reynolds number #Turbulence

paper · open access · doi:10.1146/annurev.fluid.39.050905.110308

published in Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 39(1), 447-468 (Annual Reviews)

openalex publication_date 2006/12/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Pipe flow is a prominent example among the shear flows that undergo transition to turbulence without mediation by a linear instability of the laminar profile. Experiments on pipe flow, as well as plane Couette and plane Poiseuille flow, show that triggering turbulence depends sensitively on initial conditions, that between the laminar and the turbulent states there exists no intermediate state with simple spatial or temporal characteristics, and that turbulence is not persistent, i.e., it can decay again, if the observation time is long enough. All these features can consistently be explained on the assumption that the turbulent state corresponds to a chaotic saddle in state space. The goal of this review is to explain this concept, summarize the numerical and experimental evidence for pipe flow, and outline the consequences for related flows.

Citations

• Coherent Motions in the Turbulent Boundary Layer

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