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Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Visualization of Flow Field Around a Vibrating Pipeline Within an Equilibrium Scour Hole
Published on: August 26, 2019
Decay of turbulence in pipe flow
1School of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
A novel experiment has been devised which provides direct evidence for critical point behavior in the longstanding problem of the transition to turbulence in a pipe. The novelty lies in the quenching of turbulence by reducing the Reynolds number and observing the decay of disordered motion. Divergence of the time scales implies underlying deterministic dynamics which are analogous to those found in boundary crises in dynamical systems. A modulated wave packet emerges from the long term transients and this coherent state provides evidence for connections with recent theoretical developments.
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