Roughness-induced critical phenomena in a turbulent flow

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that turbulent flows exhibit critical phenomena behavior influenced by boundary roughness, using empirical data analysis that reveals scaling laws similar to phase transitions.

Contribution

It provides the first empirical evidence linking turbulence to critical phenomena and highlights the importance of boundary roughness in understanding turbulent behavior.

Findings

Data collapse consistent with Widom scaling

Boundary roughness significantly affects turbulence

Turbulence exhibits critical phenomena characteristics

Abstract

I present empirical evidence that turbulent flows are closely analogous to critical phenomena, from a reanalysis of friction factor measurements in rough pipes. The data collapse found here corresponds to Widom scaling near critical points, and implies that a full understanding of turbulence requires explicit accounting for boundary roughness.