SAINT LOUIS COLLEGE

City of San Fernando

Activity Manual in Hydraulics

Name:_______________________________________ Group No.:_______________________

Course and Year:_______________________________ Date Performed:__________________
Schedule:_____________________________________ Date Submitted:___________________

Activity No. 3

Reynolds Number
I. OBJECTIVE: To observe the transition of laminar flow through a tube into transitional and turbulent flow.

II. APPARATUS: Reynolds number apparatus, syringe, dye, stop watch, collecting tank, thermometer

III. THEORY: The limiting conditions which determine whether flow will occur with laminar or turbulent
motion were first investigated experimentally by Osborne Reynolds. The velocity at which the change
from laminar to turbulent flow occurred was found to be higher than that which caused the change
from turbulent to laminar flow. Reynolds called these velocities respectively the higher and lower
critical velocities.

As a result of extending his experiments to include the flow of water at different

temperatures through tubes of different diameters, Reynolds established a criterion applicable to all
fluids for determining the type of flow occurring under stated conditions. The numerical value of the
expression

𝐷𝑉𝜌
𝜇

where D is the diameter of pipe, and V, ρ, and μ are respectively velocity, density, and viscosity of the
fluid, is commonly called the Reynolds number and designated by Re.

Since μ/ρ = ν, the kinematic viscosity, the value of Reynolds’ number can also be written

𝐷𝑉
𝑅𝑒 =
𝑣

It has been found and verified by many careful experiments that for commercial pipes of circular
cross section when Reynolds number is less than about 2000 the flow will be laminar and when
greater than about 2000 the flow will in practically all instances be turbulent.
 IV. PROCEDURE:

1. Close the control valve and fill the tank with water.
2. Check whether the hole where the dye is to be injected is present at the pipe near the bottom of the tank.
3. Measure the temperature of the water.
4. Open the inlet valve and flow control valve slightly until water just trickles from the outlet pipe. Open the
control valve a little more and inject the dye until slow flow with a line of dye down the tube is achieved.
Measure and record the flow rate with a stopwatch and graduated measuring cylinder or any container
which can be used to measure volume of the collected water.
5. Open the flow control valve a little more and observe the dye streak. Again measure the flow rate and record
the condition of the dye streak. Continue this process until the dye streak breaks up indicating fully turbulent
flow.

V. DATA AND RESULTS

Water temperature :_________________________

Dynamic Viscosity :_________________________

Pipe Diameter :_________________________

Time of collection
Vol. collected (mL)
(sec) Flow condition

COMPUTATIONS:
VI. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP
VII. QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS

1. What is the importance of Reynolds number in pipe flow?

2. The accepted transition Reynolds number for flow in a circular pipe is Re=2300. For flow through a 5-cm-
diameter pipe, what velocity will this occur at 20 degrees Celsius for (a) air and (b) water flow?

3. A fluid flows at 0.001 cu.m/s through a 100-mm-diameter pipe. Determine whether the flow is laminar or
turbulent if the fluid is (a) air, (d) water, (c) mercury, (d) gasoline, and (e) glycerin.
VIII. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS