The development of turbulent pipe flow

Abstract

Whilst turbulence still remains one of the great mysteries of classical physics, its reputation for a chaotic lack of structure is under intense scrutiny. Research now points to the existence of highly organized large-scale structures within turbulent flows. Much of this research have almost exclusively been carried out within a so called fully-developed region of flow. This region is downstream of a point beyond which the flow field's behavior is invariant. However, it has not been conclusively proven that a fully developed region actually exists. A literature survey found that most facilities are cited as being 'sufficiently long', yet no formal definition or documentary evidence of the fu..