5.

LAMINAR FLOW
For Newtonian fluid, the flows can be classified as (i) laminar (or viscous), and (ii)
𝜌𝑉𝑙
turbulent, depending on characteristic Reynolds number ( )where L is the
𝜇
characteristic length.
Examples of laminar/viscous flow:
1.Flow past tiny bodies.
2.Underground flow.
3.Movement of blood in the arteries of a human body.
4.Flow of oil in measuring instruments.
5.Rise of water in plants through their roots etc.
The liquid and gas phases of materials are called fluids. In many
engineering or natural systems, fluid flows around or through shapes
such as pipes. In a fluid flow over a surface or inside a surface, there is
no fluid flow at the contact surface between the fluid and the surface.
The velocity of the fluid is 0 at that point. This phenomenon is called a
no-slip condition in fluid dynamics.

Rotational flow involves the swirling or circular motion of fluid particles

around a central axis.
Flow of viscous fluid in circular pipes—Hagen Poiseuille law
Example 1
A crude oil of viscosity 0.9 poise and relative density 0.9 is flowing through a
horizontal circular pipe of diameter 120 mm and length 12 m. Calculate the
difference of pressure at the two ends of the pipe, if 785 N of the oil is collected in a
tank in 25 seconds.
Loss of head due to friction in viscous flow
Example 2
In a pipe of 200 mm diameter in which water is flowing, there is a shear stress of
0.12 kN/m2 at a point distant 30 mm from the pipe axis. If the co-efficient of
friction between the pipe and the fluid is 0.04, calculate the shear stress at the
pipe wall.
Example 4.
A pipe 240 mm in diameter and 10000 m long is laid at a slope of 1 in 180. An oil of
specific gravity 0.85 and viscosity 1.5 poise is pumped up at the rate of 0.02 m3/s.
Find:
(i)Head lost due to friction, and
(ii)Power required to pump the oil.
5.1 TURBULENT FLOW
 Introduction
In a pipe, a laminar flow occurs when Reynolds number (Re) is less than 2000 and a
turbulent flow occurs when Re > 4000. In a turbulent flow, the fluid motion is
irregular and chaotic and there is complete mixing of fluid due to collision of fluid
masses with one another. The fluid masses are interchanged between adjacent
layers. As the fluid masses in adjacent layers have different velocities, interchange
of fluid masses between the adjacent layers is accompanied by a transfer of
momentum which causes additional shear stresses of high magnitude between
adjacent layers.
The shear in turbulent flow is mainly due to momentum transfer. The contribution
of fluid viscosity to total shear is small and is usually neglected. In case of laminar
flow, because of definite functional relationship 'between shear stress due to
viscosity and velocity' it has been possible to derive a mathematical relationship for
evaluation of energy dissipation or frictional head but such a simple relationship
does not exist for turbulent flow. However to solve some of the practical problems,
efforts have been made to evolve semi-empirical theories of turbulence.
Attributes of turbulent flow:
(i) The velocity distribution in turbulent flow is more uniform than in laminar flow.
(ii)In turbulent flow the velocity gradients near the boundary shall be quite large
resulting in more shear.
(iii)In turbulent flow the flatness of velocity distribution curve in the core region
away from the wall is because of the mixing of fluid layers and exchange of
momentum between them.
(iv)The velocity distribution which is paraboloid in logarithmic law in turbulent
flow.
(v)Random orientation of fluid particles in a turbulent flow gives rise to additional
stresses, called the Reynolds stresses.
(vi)Formation of eddies, mixing and curving of path lines in a turbulent flow results
in much greater frictional losses for the same rate of discharge, viscosity and pipe
size.
The turbulent motion can be classified as follows:
Wall turbulence: It occurs in immediate vicinity of solid surfaces and in the boundary
layer flows where the fluid has a negligible mean acceleration.
Free turbulence: It occurs in jets, wakes, mixing layers etc.
Convective turbulence: It takes place where there is conversion of P.E into K.E. by the
pro-cess of mixing (e.g. the turbulent flow in the annular space between the concentric
rotating cylinder, conventional flow between parallel horizontal plates etc.).
Loss of head due to friction in pipe flow—Darcy equation
In case of turbulent flow through pipes it has been observed through experiments that
the viscous friction effects associated with fluid are proportional to:
The length of the pipe, L,
The wetted perimeter, P,
Vn, where V is the average velocity of flow and n is an index varying from 1.5 to 2
(depending on the material and nature of the pipe surface); for commercial pipes = 2
(with turbulent flow).
Fig. 11.2. shows a horizontal pipe having steady flow. Consider control volume enclosed
between sections 1 and 2 of the pipe.
Universal velocity distribution equation

Where, umax – is the centreline velocity

u –is the instantaneous velocity
uf – is the shear friction velocity or shear velocity
R – is the radius of the pipe
y – is the distance from the pipe wall
Also,

Where,
and 𝜌 = density of the flowing fluid
Example 1.
In a pipe of 360 mm diameter having turbulent flow, the centre-line velocity is 7 m/s
and that at 60 mm from the pipe wall is 6 m/s. Calculate the shear friction velocity.
Example 2
A pipe of 100 mm diameter is carrying water. If the velocities at the pipe centre and
30 mm from the pipe centre are 2.0 m/s and 1.5 m/s respectively and flow in the
pipe is turbulent, calculate the wall shearing stress.
 Effect of Rough Walls, the Moody Chart
Surface roughness also influences friction resistance. It turns out that the effect is
negligible for laminar pipe flow, but turbulent flow is strongly affected by
roughness. The relations between friction factor, Reynolds number and wall
roughness are shown in Moody Chart.
Resistance to flow of fluid in smooth and rough pipes
Example 3. In a rough pipe of diameter 0.6 m and length 4500 m water is flowing at
the rate of 0.6 m3/s. If the average height of roughness is 0.48 mm find the power
required to maintain this flow.