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In fluid dynamics, the Reynolds number (Re) is a dimensionless quantity that helps predict fluid flow patterns in different situations by measuring the ratio between inertial and viscous forces. [2] At low Reynolds numbers, flows tend to be dominated by laminar (sheet-like) flow, while at high Reynolds numbers, flows tend to be turbulent.
Dimensionless numbers (or characteristic numbers) have an important role in analyzing the behavior of fluids and their flow as well as in other transport phenomena. [1] They include the Reynolds and the Mach numbers, which describe as ratios the relative magnitude of fluid and physical system characteristics, such as density, viscosity, speed of sound, and flow speed.
A key tool used to determine the stability of a flow is the Reynolds number (Re), first put forward by George Gabriel Stokes at the start of the 1850s. Associated with Osborne Reynolds who further developed the idea in the early 1880s, this dimensionless number gives the ratio of inertial terms and viscous terms. [4]
The Reynolds and Womersley Numbers are also used to calculate the thicknesses of the boundary layers that can form from the fluid flow’s viscous effects. The Reynolds number is used to calculate the convective inertial boundary layer thickness that can form, and the Womersley number is used to calculate the transient inertial boundary thickness that can form.
The Reynolds number (Re) is a dimensionless quantity that is commonly used in fluid dynamics and engineering. [6] [7] Originally described by George Gabriel Stokes in 1850, it became popularized by Osborne Reynolds after whom the concept was named by Arnold Sommerfeld in 1908. [7] [8] [9] The Reynolds number is calculated as:
The Churchill–Bernstein equation is valid for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and Prandtl numbers, as long as the product of the two is greater than or equal to 0.2, as defined above. The Churchill–Bernstein equation can be used for any object of cylindrical geometry in which boundary layers develop freely, without constraints imposed by ...
The magnetic Reynolds number has a similar form to both the Péclet number and the Reynolds number. All three can be regarded as giving the ratio of advective to diffusive effects for a particular physical field and have the form of the product of a velocity and a length divided by a diffusivity.
Churchill equation [24] (1977) is the only equation that can be evaluated for very slow flow (Reynolds number < 1), but the Cheng (2008), [25] and Bellos et al. (2018) [8] equations also return an approximately correct value for friction factor in the laminar flow region (Reynolds number < 2300). All of the others are for transitional and ...