Journal article
The use of the dimensionless Womersley number to characterize the unsteady nature of internal flow.
C Loudon, A Tordesillas
J Theor Biol | Published : 1998
Abstract
Dimensionless numbers are very useful in characterizing mechanical behavior because their magnitude can often be interpreted as the relative importance of competing forces that will influence mechanical behavior in different ways. One dimensionless number, the Womersley number (Wo), is sometimes used to describe the unsteady nature of fluid flow in response to an unsteady pressure gradient; i. e., whether the resulting fluid flow is quasi-steady or not. Fluids surround organisms which themselves contain fluid compartments; the behaviors exhibited by these biologically-important fluids (e.g. air, water, or blood) are physiologically significant because they will determine to a large extent th..
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