particle during some time interval and part (b) demonstrates that the velocity at a fixed point

in the fluid fluctuates randomly about some mean value, which is called the temporal mean
or time averaged velocity, and which is given the symbol V,.
One of the earliest systematic investigations of turbulent flow was conducted by Reynolds,
who suggested the parameter VD/v as the criterion for predicting the type of flow in round
tubes, where Vis the average fluid velocity, Dis the pipe diameter, and vis the kinematic
viscosity, which is a property of the fluid to be described in the following section. In a
consistent set of units, the parameter is dimensionless, and is called the Reynolds number
(Re). The value of Re at which transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs is
approximately 2100 in the usual engineering applications of flow in pipes. In general,
however, the transition Reynolds number varies with different systems, and even for a given
system it may vary according to such external factors as surface roughness and initial
disturbances in the fluid.
Figure 1. 3 shows the distribution of velocity across the radius of a tube, for laminar and
turbulent flow. The temporal mean velocity is plotted for