Related papers: Deterministic and stochastic aspects of the transi…
Pipe flow and many other shear flows show a transition to turbulence at flow rates for which the laminar profile is stable against infinitesimal perturbations. In this brief review the recent progress in the understanding of this transition…
The onset of turbulence in pipe flow has been a fundamental challenge in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering for over 140 years. To date, the precursor of this laminar-turbulent transition is recognized as transient turbulent…
Fluid flows in nature and applications are frequently subject to periodic velocity modulations. Surprisingly, even for the generic case of flow through a straight pipe, there is little consensus regarding the influence of pulsation on the…
Contrasting with free shear flows presenting velocity profiles with inflection points which cascade to turbulence in a relatively mild way, wall bounded flows are deprived of (inertial) instability modes at low Reynolds numbers and become…
In this essay, we recall the specificities of the transition to turbulence in wall-bounded flows and present recent achievements in the understanding of this problem. The transition is abrupt with laminar-turbulent coexistence over a finite…
Abrupt transition to turbulence may occur in pipe and channel flows at moderate flow rates, an unexpected event according to linear stability theory, and has been an open problem in fluid dynamics for more than a century. Extensive…
The transitional and well-developed regimes of turbulent shear flows exhibit a variety of remarkable scaling laws that are only now beginning to be systematically studied and understood. In the first part of this article, we summarize…
The transition to turbulence in pipe flow does not follow the scenario familiar from Rayleigh-Benard or Taylor-Couette flow since the laminar profile is stable against infinitesimal perturbations for all Reynolds numbers. Moreover, even…
One-dimensional models are presented for transitional shear flows. The models have two variables corresponding to turbulence intensity and mean shear. These variables evolve according to simple equations based on known properties of…
The experiments by Darbyshire and Mullin (J. Fluid Mech. 289, 83 (1995)) on the transition to turbulence in pipe flow show that there is no sharp border between initial conditions that trigger turbulence and those that do not. We here…
The volatile transition from quiescent laminar to strongly fluctuating turbulent dynamics in shear flows remains only poorly understood despite its practical importance and more than a century of intense research. The theoretical…
Suspended particles can alter the properties of fluids and in particular also affect the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. In the present experimental study, we investigate the impact of neutrally buoyant, spherical inertial…
The onset of shear flow turbulence is characterized by turbulent patches bounded by regions of laminar flow. At low Reynolds numbers localized turbulence relaminarises, raising the question of whether it is transient in nature or it becomes…
Linearly stable shear flows first transition to turbulence in the form of localised patches. At low Reynolds numbers, these turbulent patches tend to suddenly decay, following a memoryless process typical of rare events. How far in advance…
Recent studies have brought into question the view that at sufficiently high Reynolds number turbulence is an asymptotic state. We present the first direct observation of the decay of turbulent states in Taylor-Couette flow with lifetimes…
Over a century of research into the origin of turbulence in wallbounded shear flows has resulted in a puzzling picture in which turbulence appears in a variety of different states competing with laminar background flow. At slightly higher…
The transition to turbulence in pipes is characterized by a coexistence of laminar and turbulent states. At the lower end of the transition, localized turbulent pulses, called puffs, can be excited. Puffs can decay when rare fluctuations…
The transition to turbulence in flows where the laminar profile is linearly stable requires perturbations of finite amplitude. "Optimal" perturbations are distinguished as extrema of certain functionals, and different functionals give…
The transition of the flow in a duct of square cross-section is studied. Like in the similar case of the pipe flow, the motion is linearly stable for all Reynolds numbers; this flow is thus a good candidate to investigate the 'bypass' path…
Linear stability analysis currently fails to predict turbulence transition in canonical viscous flows. We show that two alternative models of the boundary condition for incipient perturbations at solid walls produce linear instabilities…