Pipe flow: a gateway to turbulence (Q2029466)

The author gives a concise and illuminating history of the scientific study of pipe flow (both air and water), focusing at first on a succession of formulas for determining the pressure loss per pipe length and on the varied engineering contexts from which they emerged, beginning with the construction of the Versailles waterworks in the late 17th century. With the establishment of empirically successful formulas for both laminar (Hagen-Poiseuille law) and turbulent (Blasius's law) flow, the focus shifts to the study of the laminar-turbulent transition and the attempts to obtain a theoretical derivation for the law of turbulent flow by Ludwig Prandtl and his student Theodore von Kármán in the early twentieth century. Pipe flow is thus identified as a central empirical gateway to the study of turbulence, highlighting the origins of turbulence research in applied engineering concerns. The author describes how Prandtl, von Kármán, and another Prandtl student, Johann Nikuradse, an expert for pipe flow measurements, obtained a first theoretical framework for turbulent flow. The paper ends with an outlook on later developments.