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Updated: Jun 26, 2026

Visualization of Flow Field Around a Vibrating Pipeline Within an Equilibrium Scour Hole
Published on: August 26, 2019
Repeller or attractor? Selecting the dynamical model for the onset of turbulence in pipe flow
Björn Hof1, Alberto de Lozar, Dirk Jan Kuik
1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization, Bunsenstrasse 10, 37073 Goettingen, Germany. bjoern.hof@ds.mpg.de
Abstract:
The collapse of turbulence, observable in shear flows at low Reynolds numbers, raises the question if turbulence is generically of a transient nature or becomes sustained at some critical point. Recent data have led to conflicting views with the majority of studies supporting the model of turbulence turning into an attracting state. Here we present lifetime measurements of turbulence in pipe flow spanning 8 orders of magnitude in time, drastically extending all previous investigations. We show that no critical point exists in this regime and that in contrast to the prevailing view the turbulent state remains transient. To our knowledge this is the first observation of superexponential transients in turbulence, confirming a conjecture derived from low-dimensional systems.
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