Hello All! Why is it important to determine the coefficient of friction 𝜆 when determining hydraulic resistance? How important is it for the world to find a theoretical solution 𝜆 for a turbulent regime? Is there a Noble Prize for this?
For engineering work, it is necessary to have a good estimate of the coefficient of friction in order to be able to determine an estimate of the pressure (or head) loss of the liquid as it flows thru a conduit (e.g. a pipe or streambed).
I'm not an expert in fluid dynamics, however I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot of investigations of turbulent flow that are directly or indirectly pertinent to development of theoretical formulations relating friction loss to specific turbulent flow regimes. I don't know how accurate or broadly applicable such formulations might be; we need a fluid dynamicist to chime in here!
James C. Trask Im agree! Let's say for the laminar mode λ=64/Re, for pipes with a circular cross section, which follows from the Poiseuille Principle, but this is true only for pipes with a circular cross section, for a square we will already have something like λ=96/Re. We need a universal principle that would be valid for both pipes and streamlined profiles. Don't you think that this is connected, first of all, with the kinematics of the motion of mass particles? Today it is believed that they move randomly, but maybe they always move principal?
Hmmm a universal principal...seems to me that on a level of fundamental physics, a statistical mechanical framework type of approach could be fruitful--I'm just speculating here, I'm sure that this type of approach has been attempted, and either determined to be a dead end or has yielded something fruitful, though short of a universal principal...40 years ago when I studied physics as an undergraduate, the phenomenae of turbulence was considered one of the great unsolved challenges of applied physics; I think this is likeiy still the case or we would have heard otherwise...hmmm so maybe this is Nobel prize type of breakthru if someone made significant progress toward such a universal principal!
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