7. Basics of Turbulent Flow MIT（7所示。）.PDF

1 7. Basics of Turbulent Flow Whether a flow is laminar or turbulent depends of the relative importance of fluid friction (viscosity) and flow inertia. The ratio of inertial to viscous forces is the Reynolds number. Given the characteristic velocity scale, U, and length scale, L, for a system, the Reynolds number is Re = UL/ν, where ν is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. For most surface water systems the characteristic length scale is the basin-scale. Because this scale is typically large (1 m to 100s km), most surface water systems are turbulent. In contrast, the characteristic length scale for groundwater systems is the pore scale, which is typically quite small ( 1 mm), and groundwater flow is nearly always laminar. The characteristic length-scale for a channel of width w and depth h is the hydraulic radius, Rh = wh/P, where P is the wetted perimeter. For an open channel P = (2h + w) and for a closed conduit P = 2(h+w). As a general rule, open channel flow is laminar if the Reynolds number defined by the hydraulic radius, Re = UR /ν is less than 500. As the h Reynolds number increases above this limit burst of turbulent appear intermittently in the flow. As Re increases the frequency and duration of the turbulent bursts also increases until Re O(1000), at which point the turbulence is fully persistent. If the conduit boundary is rough, the transition to fully turbulent flow can occur at lower Reynolds numbers. Alternatively, laminar conditions can persist to higher Reynolds numbers if the conduit is smooth and inlet conditions are carefully designed. Figure 1. Tracer transport in laminar and turbulent flow. The straight, parallel black lines are streamlines, which are everywhere parallel to the mean flow. In laminar