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www.iop.org/journals/physed
E-mail: riveros@fisica.unam.mx
Abstract
There are many ways to visualize flow, either for laminar or turbulent flows.
A very convincing way to show laminar and turbulent flows is by the
perturbations on the surface of a beam of water coming out of a cylindrical
tube. Photographs, taken with a flash, show the nature of the flow of water in
pipes. They clearly show the difference between turbulent and laminar flow,
and let, in an accessible way, data be taken to analyse the conditions under
which both flows are present. We found research articles about turbulence
measurements, using sophisticated equipment, but they do not use the
perturbation of the free surface of the flowing liquid to show or measure the
turbulence.
Introduction
The problem of transporting water through pipes
exists since this is the way it is distributed to
communities; if the water is moving without
friction (viscosity) it could be distributed with very
little energy dissipation. The viscosity opposes the
motion of a layer of water over another, and acts
as a friction force, transferring part of the energy
of flow into thermal energy.
The differential equations for flow have
two solutions: either time-independent or timedependent. In the first case, the fluid velocity
is constant in time at each point, and the
corresponding flow is called laminar. If the
velocity changes over time, the flow is turbulent;
in this case, the solutions correspond either to
the stationary or transient state. There are many
techniques for flow visualization [1], most of them
based on the dispersion of light produced by tracer
particles or gas bubbles. We use the shape of the
surface of a cylindrical water beam, smooth for
laminar flow or rough for turbulent flow [2]. The
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PHYSICS EDUCATION
45 (3)
P = 8L/r 4
(2)
P = Lv 2 /4r = L2 /4 2r 5
(3)
Experiments
The photos in figures 13 display the flow for a
variety of Reynolds numbers calculated for the
flow at the mouth of the tube. As the diameter
of the water beam changes, so does the Reynolds
number.
Laminar flows do not disturb the surface in
points throughout said flow; the changes observed
are due to the attempts of the superficial tension
force to reduce the area by forming smaller
diameter drops. However, on increasing the
rate of the flow to reach turbulent regimes, the
photographs clearly show the disturbances at the
free surface of the water beam.
In the photographs in figure 2 there is
an increment in the turbulence, shown as
deformations in the surface of the water beam. The
beam surface is deformed by changes in speed of
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Acknowledgment
We thank the reviewer who improved our article
with many useful suggestions.
Received 18 January 2010, in final form 16 February 2010
doi:10.1088/0031-9120/45/3/010
b
Figure 4. (a) A water beam passing through the straight
section of a T-junction. (b) A water beam at the same
rate of flow, after being deflected 90 in the T-junction.
References
[1] Clayton B R and Massey B S 1967 J. Sci. Instrum.
44 211
[2] Sears F W, Zemansky M W and Young H D 1985
College Physics (Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley) p 275
[3] www.engineeringtoolbox.com/
darcy-weisbach-equation-d 646.html
[4] Castro P M, Delfino A, Vieira E and Faria V A
2000 Pin-hole water flow from cylindrical
bottles Phys. Educ. 35 1109
H G Riveros has been a researcher at the
Instituto de Fsica de la Universidad
Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM)
since 1963. He has written several books
and designed many experiments and
demonstrations. He writes the column
Los Placeres del Pensamiento in the
Bulletin of the Mexican Physical Society.
Conclusions
Photographs provide a very graphical way to show
the turbulence in a fluid flowing in a beam in
the open air. The deformation at a point in the
surface of the beam shows the chaotic behaviour
of an internal portion of the fluid. Also shown
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