Michael A. Mudd: Transition to Turbulence in Pipe and Duct Flows: A Computational Fluid Dynamics Study

ABSTRACT Essentially all common devices, whether for household use, for transportation, or for scientific investigations often rely on transport of fluids at some stage. This is especially true of vehicles employed in NASA's missions both within the confines of Earth's atmosphere and all the way to the outer reaches of the solar system. Such transport of fluids requires pumping in some manner, which in turn necessitates a power source; clearly, the smaller the power requirement, the longer a device can functions-something very important for deep-space missions. It is also well understood that more power is required to pump a fluid undergoing turbulent flow than one in a laminar regime. The purpose of the present research is to carefully examine transitions to turbulence in pipe flows to ultimately facilitate better predictions of when and how this occurs, and thus to be able to better specify pumping requirements, in general, for a wide range of devices-but especially those associated with NASA missions.