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The Reynolds number can be defined for several different situations where a fluid is in relative motion to a surface. [n 1] These definitions generally include the fluid properties of density and viscosity, plus a velocity and a characteristic length or characteristic dimension (L in the above equation). This dimension is a matter of convention ...
In physics, a characteristic length is an important dimension that defines the scale of a physical system. Often, such a length is used as an input to a formula in order to predict some characteristics of the system, and it is usually required by the construction of a dimensionless quantity, in the general framework of dimensional analysis and in particular applications such as fluid mechanics.
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.
Magnetic Reynolds number: R m ... (ratio of characteristic time of particle to time of flow) Strouhal number: ... (measure of linear dependence)
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 is defined as [24] =, where: ρ is the density of the fluid (SI units: kg/m 3) v is a characteristic velocity of the fluid with respect to the object (m/s) L is a characteristic linear dimension (m) μ is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pa·s or N·s/m 2 or kg/(m·s)).
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]
For the case of flow without heat transfer, the non-dimensionalized Navier–Stokes equation depends only on the Reynolds Number and hence all physical realizations of the related experiment will have the same value of non-dimensionalized variables for the same Reynolds Number. [3]