File:Los_Angeles_attack_sub_2.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
turbulence
Sign in to saveAlso known as fluid turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion exhibiting chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between those layers.
Turbulence is chaotic, unpredictable motion in fluids where pressure and flow velocity change rapidly and irregularly, unlike the smooth, orderly flow of laminar conditions. It matters because understanding when and how turbulence occurs is essential for predicting fluid behavior in practical applications like air and water flow.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Laminar-turbulent transition.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- Commons category
- Turbulence
- Stack Exchange tag
- physics.stackexchange.com/tags/turbulence
via Wikidata · CC0
~29 min read
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Examples of turbulence
- Features
- Onset of turbulence
- Heat and momentum transfer
- Kolmogorov's theory of 1941{{anchor|Kolmogorov's theory}}
- See also
- Notes
- References
- Further reading
- External links
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion exhibiting chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between those layers.
Turbulence is commonly observed in everyday phenomena such as surf, fast flowing rivers, billowing storm clouds, or smoke from a chimney, and most fluid flows occurring in nature or created in engineering applications are turbulent. Turbulence is caused by excessive kinetic energy in parts of a fluid flow, which overcomes the damping effect of the fluid's viscosity. For this reason, turbulence is commonly realized in low viscosity fluids. In general terms, in turbulent flow, unsteady vortices appear of many sizes which interact with each other, consequently drag due to friction effects increases.