turbulence
(noun)
Disturbance in a gas or fluid, characterized by evidence of internal motion or unrest.
Examples of turbulence in the following topics:
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Turbulence Explained
- It is possible to predict if flow will be laminar or turbulent.
- Turbulence manifests in other areas, with varying causes.
- The phenomenon of turbulent air flow must be accounted for in many applications.
- When flow is turbulent, particles exhibit additional transverse motion.
- Turbulent flow is visible around the bridge supports of the Longtown bridge.
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Poiseuille's Equation and Viscosity
- This is generally split into two categories, laminar and turbulent flow.
- Analysis of turbulent flow can be very complex and often requires advanced mathematical analysis to simulate flow in systems on a near case-by-case basis.
- It occurs when the Reynolds number is above a certain critical threshold while mixed turbulent–laminar flow occurs within a range of Reynolds number below this threshold value.
- At the lower limit of this mixed turbulent–laminar flow Reynolds number region there is another critical threshold value, below which only laminar flow is possible.
- Laminar flow consists of a regular-flow pattern with constant-flow velocity throughout the fluid volume and is much easier to analyze than turbulent flow.
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Motionof an Object in a Viscous Field
- Just as with flow in tubes, it is possible to predict when a moving object creates turbulence.
- The transition to turbulent flow occurs for N′R between 1 and about 10, depending on surface roughness and so on.
- Depending on the surface, there can be a turbulent wake behind the object with some laminar flow over its surface.
- For an N′R between 10 and 10^6, the flow may be either laminar or turbulent and may oscillate between the two.
- For N′R greater than about 10^6, the flow is entirely turbulent, even at the surface of the object.
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Accretion Disks
- It is likely that accretion disks are turbulent magnifying the effects of small-scale viscosity to larger scales.
- However, without simulating the turbulence directly, it is difficult to estimate the effective viscosity.
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Modelling the Stress
- Shakura and Sunyaev argued that the viscosity is produced by turbulent eddies so its natural value is
- where the inequality holds because the turbulent velocity is limited by the sound speed, and the size of the eddies is limited by the thickness of the disk.
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Flow Rate and Velocity
- These factors affect fluid velocity depending on the nature of the fluid flow—particularly whether the flow is turbulent or laminar in nature.
- In the case of turbulent flow, the flow velocity is complex in nature and thus hard to predict; it must be analyzed on a system per system basis.
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Carnot Cycles
- Irreversible processes involve dissipative factors, such as friction and turbulence.
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Heat as Energy Transfer
- Gravitational potential energy (PE) (work done by the gravitational force) is converted into kinetic energy (KE), and then randomized by viscosity and turbulence into increased average kinetic energy of atoms and molecules in the system, producing a temperature increase.