Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law

In the design practices of many engineering applications, gross information about the flow field may suffice to provide magnitudes of the parameters that are essential to complete the design with reasonable accuracy. If such design parameters can be estimated following simpler steps, it may be possi...

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Main Author: Amgad Salama
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-10-01
Series:Fluids
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5521/6/10/369
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author Amgad Salama
author_facet Amgad Salama
author_sort Amgad Salama
collection DOAJ
description In the design practices of many engineering applications, gross information about the flow field may suffice to provide magnitudes of the parameters that are essential to complete the design with reasonable accuracy. If such design parameters can be estimated following simpler steps, it may be possible to abandon the need to conduct expensive numerical and/or experimental works to produce them. In this work, we are interested in providing a generalized power law that depicts the velocity profile for fully developed turbulent flows. This law incorporates two fitting parameters <i>m</i> and <i>n</i> that represent the exponents of (1) a nondimensional length scale and (2) an overall exponent, respectively. These two parameters may be determined by fitting the experimental and/or computational data. In this work, fitting benchmark experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data found in the literature reveals that the parameter <i>m</i> changes over a relatively smaller range (between 1 and 2), while the parameter <i>n</i> changes over a wider range (between 1 and 12 for the range of Reynolds number considered). These two parameters (<i>m</i> and <i>n</i>) are, generally, not universal, and they depend on the Reynolds number (<i>Re</i>). A correlation was also developed to correlate <i>n</i> and <i>Re</i> in the turbulent flow region. In order to preserve the continuity of the derivative of the velocity profile at the centerline, a value of <i>m</i> equals 2 over the whole range of <i>Re</i> is recommended. Apart from the near wall area, the new law fits the velocity profile reasonably well. This generalized law abides to a number of favorable stipulations for the velocity profile, namely the continuity of derivatives and reduction to the laminar flow velocity profile for lower values of <i>Re</i>.
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spelling doaj.art-190970d63a06499d8979add46cdc0c162023-11-22T18:12:52ZengMDPI AGFluids2311-55212021-10-0161036910.3390/fluids6100369Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power LawAmgad Salama0Process System Engineering, University of Regina, Regina, SK S4S 0A2, CanadaIn the design practices of many engineering applications, gross information about the flow field may suffice to provide magnitudes of the parameters that are essential to complete the design with reasonable accuracy. If such design parameters can be estimated following simpler steps, it may be possible to abandon the need to conduct expensive numerical and/or experimental works to produce them. In this work, we are interested in providing a generalized power law that depicts the velocity profile for fully developed turbulent flows. This law incorporates two fitting parameters <i>m</i> and <i>n</i> that represent the exponents of (1) a nondimensional length scale and (2) an overall exponent, respectively. These two parameters may be determined by fitting the experimental and/or computational data. In this work, fitting benchmark experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) data found in the literature reveals that the parameter <i>m</i> changes over a relatively smaller range (between 1 and 2), while the parameter <i>n</i> changes over a wider range (between 1 and 12 for the range of Reynolds number considered). These two parameters (<i>m</i> and <i>n</i>) are, generally, not universal, and they depend on the Reynolds number (<i>Re</i>). A correlation was also developed to correlate <i>n</i> and <i>Re</i> in the turbulent flow region. In order to preserve the continuity of the derivative of the velocity profile at the centerline, a value of <i>m</i> equals 2 over the whole range of <i>Re</i> is recommended. Apart from the near wall area, the new law fits the velocity profile reasonably well. This generalized law abides to a number of favorable stipulations for the velocity profile, namely the continuity of derivatives and reduction to the laminar flow velocity profile for lower values of <i>Re</i>.https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5521/6/10/369fully developed turbulent flowpower lawvelocity profileaverage velocity
spellingShingle Amgad Salama
Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
Fluids
fully developed turbulent flow
power law
velocity profile
average velocity
title Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
title_full Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
title_fullStr Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
title_full_unstemmed Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
title_short Velocity Profile Representation for Fully Developed Turbulent Flows in Pipes: A Modified Power Law
title_sort velocity profile representation for fully developed turbulent flows in pipes a modified power law
topic fully developed turbulent flow
power law
velocity profile
average velocity
url https://www.mdpi.com/2311-5521/6/10/369
work_keys_str_mv AT amgadsalama velocityprofilerepresentationforfullydevelopedturbulentflowsinpipesamodifiedpowerlaw