# Kolmogorovian turbulence in transitional pipe flows

## TL;DR

This paper demonstrates experimentally that transitional pipe flows exhibit Kolmogorov turbulence characteristics, revealing that flashes of turbulent flow during transition are consistent with Kolmogorov's turbulence theory, indicating a two-phase flow nature.

## Contribution

It provides experimental evidence linking transitional pipe flow flashes to Kolmogorov turbulence, suggesting a two-phase flow model during transition.

## Key findings

- Flash flow's fluid friction indicates turbulence.
- Energy spectra of flash and turbulent flows show small-scale universality.
- Transitional flows are two-phase, with laminar and Kolmogorov-turbulent phases.

## Abstract

As everyone knows who has opened a kitchen faucet, pipe flow is laminar at low flow velocities and turbulent at high flow velocities. At intermediate velocities there is a transition wherein plugs of laminar flow alternate along the pipe with "flashes" of a type of fluctuating, non-laminar flow which remains poorly known. We show experimentally that the fluid friction of flash flow is diagnostic of turbulence. We also show that the statistics of flash flow are in keeping with Kolmogorov's phenomenological theory of turbulence (so that, e.g., the energy spectra of both flash flow and turbulent flow satisfy small-scale universality). We conclude that transitional pipe flows are two- phase flows in which one phase is laminar and the other, carried by flashes, is turbulent in the sense of Kolmogorov.