Archimedes number

The Archimedes number

(not to be confused with Archimedes' constant, ), named after
the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes is used to determine the motion of fluids due to density
differences. It is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of gravitational forces to viscous
forces and has the form:

where:

g = gravitational acceleration (9.81 m/s),

l = density of the fluid,

= density of the body,

= dynamic viscosity,
L = characteristic length of body, m

When analyzing potentially mixed convection of a liquid, the Archimedes number parametrizes
the relative strength of free and forced convection. When Ar >> 1 natural convection dominates,
i.e. less dense bodies rise and denser bodies sink, and when Ar << 1 forced convection
dominates. When the density difference is due to heat transfer (e.g. fluid being heated and
causing a temperature difference between different parts of the fluid), then we may write

where:

is the volumetric expansion coefficient

is temperature
subscript 0 refers to a reference point within the fluid body

Doing this gives the Grashof number, i.e. the Archimedes and Grashof numbers are equivalent
but suited to describing situations where there is a material difference in density and heat transfer
causes the density difference respectively. The Archimedes number is related to both the
Richardson number and Reynolds number via

Atwood number
The Atwood number is a dimensionless number in fluid dynamics used in the study of
hydrodynamic instabilities in density stratified flows. It is a dimensionless density ratio defined
as

where
= density of heavier fluid
= density of lighter fluid

Field of application
Atwood number is an important parameter in the study of RayleighTaylor instability and
RichtmyerMeshkov instability. In RayleighTaylor instability, the penetration distance of
heavy fluid bubbles into the light fluid is a function of acceleration time scale,
the gravitational acceleration and t is the time

where g is

Bagnold number
The Bagnold number is the ratio of grain collision stresses to viscous fluid stresses in a granular
flow with interstitial Newtonian fluid, first identified by Ralph Alger Bagnold.
The Bagnold number is defined by

where is the particle density, is the grain diameter, is the shear rate and is the dynamic
viscosity of the interstitial fluid. The parameter is known as the linear concentration, and is
given by

where is the solids fraction and

is the maximum possible concentration (see random close
packing). In flows with small Bagnold numbers (Ba<40), viscous fluid stresses dominate grain
collision stresses, and the flow is said to be in the 'macro-viscous' regime. Grain collision stresses
dominate at large Bagnold number (Ba>450), which is known as the 'grain-inertia' regime. A
transitional regime falls between these two values.

See also

Bingham plastic

Bejan number
There are two Bejan numbers (Be) in use, named after Duke University professor Adrian Bejan
in two scientific domains: thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.

Thermodynamics
In the context of thermodynamics, the Bejan number is the ratio of heat transfer irreversibility to
total irreversibility due to heat transfer and fluid friction:

where
is the entropy generation contributed by heat transfer
is the entropy generation contributed by fluid friction.

Fluid mechanics, heat transfer and mass transfer

In the context of fluid mechanics. the Bejan number is the dimensionless pressure drop along a
channel of length :

where
3

is the dynamic viscosity

is the momentum diffusivity
In the context of heat transfer. the Bejan number is the dimensionless pressure drop along a
channel of length :

where
is the dynamic viscosity
is the thermal diffusivity
The Be number plays in forced convection the same role that the Rayleigh number plays in
natural convection.
In the context of mass transfer. the Bejan number is the dimensionless pressure drop along a
channel of length :

where
is the dynamic viscosity
is the mass diffusivity
For the case of Reynolds analogy (Le = Pr = Sc = 1), it is clear that all three definitions of Bejan
number are the same

Biot number
The Biot number (Bi) is a dimensionless number used in heat transfer calculations. It is named
after the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot (17741862), and gives a simple index of the ratio
of the heat transfer resistances inside of and at the surface of a body. This ratio determines
whether or not the temperatures inside a body will vary significantly in space, while the body
heats or cools over time, from a thermal gradient applied to its surface. In general, problems
involving small Biot numbers (much smaller than 1) are thermally simple, due to uniform
temperature fields inside the body. Biot numbers much larger than 1 signal more difficult
problems due to non-uniformity of temperature fields within the object.

The Biot number has a variety of applications, including transient heat transfer and use in
extended surface heat transfer calculations.

Definition
The Biot number is defined as:

where:

h = film coefficient or heat transfer coefficient or convective heat transfer coefficient

LC = characteristic length, which is commonly defined as the volume of the body divided

by the surface area of the body, such that

kb = Thermal conductivity of the body

The physical significance of Biot number can be understood by imagining the heat flow from a
small hot metal sphere suddenly immersed in a pool, to the surrounding fluid. The heat flow
experiences two resistances: the first within the solid metal (which is influenced by both the size
and composition of the sphere), and the second at the surface of the sphere. If the thermal
resistance of the fluid/sphere interface exceeds that thermal resistance offered by the interior of
the metal sphere, the Biot number will be less than one. For systems where it is much less than
one, the interior of the sphere may be presumed always to have the same temperature, although
this temperature may be changing, as heat passes into the sphere from the surface. The equation
to describe this change in (relatively uniform) temperature inside the object, is simple
exponential one described in Newton's law of cooling.
In contrast, the metal sphere may be large, causing the characteristic length to increase to the
point that the Biot number is larger than one. Now, thermal gradients within the sphere become
important, even though the sphere material is a good conductor. Equivalently, if the sphere is
made of a thermally insulating (poorly conductive) material, such as wood or styrofoam, the
interior resistance to heat flow will exceed that of the fluid/sphere boundary, even with a much
smaller sphere. In this case, again, the Biot number will be greater than one.

Applications
Values of the Biot number smaller than 0.1 imply that the heat conduction inside the body is
much faster than the heat convection away from its surface, and temperature gradients are
negligible inside of it. This can indicate the applicability (or inapplicability) of certain methods
of solving transient heat transfer problems. For example, a Biot number less than 0.1 typically
indicates less than 5% error will be present when assuming a lumped-capacitance model of
transient heat transfer (also called lumped system analysis). Typically this type of analysis leads
5

to simple exponential heating or cooling behavior ("Newtonian" cooling or heating) since the
amount of thermal energy (loosely, amount of "heat") in the body is directly proportional to its
temperature, which in turn determines the rate of heat transfer into or out of it. This leads to a
simple first-order differential equation which describes heat transfer in these systems.
Having a Biot number smaller than 0.1 labels a substance as thermally thin, and temperature can
be assumed to be constant throughout the materials volume. The opposite is also true: A Biot
number greater than 0.1 (a "thermally thick" substance) indicates that one cannot make this
assumption, and more complicated heat transfer equations for "transient heat conduction" will be
required to describe the time-varying and non-spatially-uniform temperature field within the
material body.
Together with the Fourier number, the Biot number can be used in transient conduction problems
in a lumped parameter solution which can be written as,,

Mass transfer analogue

An analogous version of the Biot number (usually called the "mass transfer Biot number", or
) is also used in mass diffusion processes:

where:

hm - film mass transfer coefficient

LC - characteristic length
DAB - mass diffusivity.

Brinkman number
The Brinkman number is a dimensionless number related to heat conduction from a wall to a
flowing viscous fluid, commonly used in polymer processing. There are several definitions; one
is

where

NBr is the Brinkman number;

is the fluid's dynamic viscosity;
U is the fluid's velocity;
is the thermal conductivity of the fluid;
T0 is the bulk fluid temperature;
Tw is the wall temperature.

It is the ratio between heat produced by viscous dissipation and heat transported by molecular
conduction. i.e, the ratio of viscous heat generation to external heating. The higher the value of
it, the lesser will be the conduction of heat produced by viscous dissipation and hence larger the
temperature rise.
Brinkman number can be considered as the product of Prandtl number and Eckert number,

In, for example, a screw extruder, the energy supplied to the polymer melt comes primarily from
two sources:

viscous heat generated by shear between parts of the flow moving at different velocities;
direct heat conduction from the wall of the extruder.

The former is supplied by the motor turning the screw, the latter by heaters. The Brinkman
number is a measure of the ratio of the two.

Capillary number
In fluid dynamics, the capillary number represents the relative effect of viscous forces versus
surface tension acting across an interface between a liquid and a gas, or between two immiscible
liquids. It is defined as

where is the viscosity of the liquid, is a characteristic velocity and is the surface or
interfacial tension between the two fluid phases.For low capillary numbers (a rule of thumb says
less than
), flow in porous media is dominated by capillary forces.

Cauchy number
The Cauchy number,
is a dimensionless number in fluid dynamics used in the study of
compressible flows. It is named after the French mathematician Augustin Louis Cauchy. When
the compressibility is important the elastic forces must be considered along with inertial forces
for dynamic similarity. Thus, the Cauchy Number is defined as the ratio between inertial and the
compressibility force (elastic force) in a flow and can be expressed as

,
where
= density of fluid, (SI units: kg/m3)
= local fluid velocity, (SI units: m/s)
= bulk modulus of elasticity, (SI units: Pa)

Relation between Cauchy number and Mach number

For isentropic processes, the Cauchy number may be expressed in terms of Mach number. The
isentropic bulk modulus
, where is the specific heat capacity ratio and is the fluid
pressure. If the fluid obeys the ideal gas law, we have
,
where
= speed of sound, (SI units: m/s)
= characteristic gas constant, (SI units: J/(kg K) )
= temperature, (SI units: K)
Substituting K (K_s) in the equation for

yields

.
Thus, the Cauchy number is square of the Mach number for isentropic flow of a perfect gas

Damkhler numbers
8

The Damkhler numbers (Da) are dimensionless numbers used in chemical engineering to
relate chemical reaction timescale to other phenomena occurring in a system. It is named after
German chemist Gerhard Damkhler (19081944).
There are several Damkhler numbers, and their definition varies according to the system under
consideration.
For a general chemical reaction A B of nth order, the Damkhler number is defined as

where:

k = kinetics reaction rate constant

C0 = initial concentration
n = reaction order
t = time

and it represents a dimensionless reaction time. It provides a quick estimate of the degree of
conversion ( ) that can be achieved in continuous flow reactors.
Generally, if

, then

. Similarly, if

, then

In continuous or semibatch chemical processes, the general definition of the Damkhler number
is:

or as

For example, in a continuous reactor, the Damkhler number is:

where

is the mean residence time or space time.

In reacting systems that include also interphase mass transport, the second Damkhler number (
) is defined as the ratio of the chemical reaction rate to the mass transfer rate

where

is the global mass transport coefficient

is the interfacial area

Dean number
The Dean number is a dimensionless group in fluid mechanics, which occurs in the study of
flow in curved pipes and channels. It is named after the British scientist W. R. Dean, who studied
such flows in the 1920s (Dean, 1927, 1928).

Definition
The Dean number is typically denoted by the symbol De. For flow in a pipe or tube it is defined
as:

where

is the density of the fluid

is the dynamic viscosity
is the axial velocity scale
is the diameter (other shapes are represented by an equivalent diameter, see Reynolds
number)
is the radius of curvature of the path of the channel.

The Dean number is therefore the product of the Reynolds number (based on axial flow
through a pipe of diameter ) and the square root of the curvature ratio.

The Dean Equations

The Dean number appears in the so-called Dean Equations. These are an approximation to the
full NavierStokes equations for the steady axially uniform flow of a Newtonian fluid in a
10

toroidal pipe, obtained by retaining just the leading order curvature effects (i.e. the leading-order
equations for
).
We use orthogonal coordinates
with corresponding unit vectors
aligned with
the centre-line of the pipe at each point. The axial direction is , with being the normal in the
plane of the centre-line, and the binormal. For an axial flow driven by a pressure gradient ,
the axial velocity
with
radius

is scaled with

. The cross-stream velocities

, and cross-stream pressures with

are scaled

. Lengths are scaled with the tube

In terms of these non-dimensional variables and coordinates, the Dean equations are then

where

is the convective derivative.

The Dean number D is the only parameter left in the system, and encapsulates the leading order
curvature effects. Higher-order approximations will involve additional parameters.
For weak curvature effects (small D), the Dean equations can be solved as a series expansion in
D. The first correction to the leading-order axial Poiseuille flow is a pair of vortices in the crosssection carrying flow form the inside to the outrside of the bend across the centre and back
around the edges. This solution is stable up to a critical Dean number
(Dennis & Ng
1982). For larger D, there are multiple solutions, many of which are unstable.

11

Deborah number
The Deborah number is a dimensionless number, often used in rheology to characterize the
fluidity of materials under specific flow conditions. It was originally proposed by Markus
Reiner, a professor at Technion in Israel, inspired by a verse in the Bible, stating "The mountains
flowed before the Lord" in a song by prophetess Deborah (Judges 5:5). It is based on the premise
that given enough time even the hardest material, like mountains, will flow. Thus the flow
characteristics is not an inherent property of the material alone, but a relative property that
depends on two fundamentally different characteristic times.
Formally, the Deborah number is defined as the ratio of the relaxation time characterizing the
time it takes for a material to adjust to applied stresses or deformations, and the characteristic
time scale of an experiment (or a computer simulation) probing the response of the material. It
incorporates both the elasticity and viscosity of the material. At lower Deborah numbers, the
material behaves in a more fluidlike manner, with an associated Newtonian viscous flow. At
higher Deborah numbers, the material behavior changes to a non-Newtonian regime,
increasingly dominated by elasticity, demonstrating solidlike behavior.
The equation is thus:

where tc refers to the stress relaxation time (sometimes called the Maxwell relaxation time), and
tp refers to the time scale of observation.

Eckert number
The Eckert number is a dimensionless number used in fluid dynamics. It expresses the
relationship between a flow's kinetic energy and enthalpy, and is used to characterize dissipation.
It is named after Ernst R. G. Eckert.
It is defined as

where

12

is a characteristic velocity of the flow.

is the constant-pressure specific heat of the flow.
is a characteristic temperature difference of the flow.

Ekman number
The Ekman number is a dimensionless number used in describing geophysical phenomena in
the oceans and atmosphere. It characterises the ratio of viscous forces in a fluid to the fictitious
forces arising from planetary rotation. It is named after the Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid
Ekman.
More generally, in any rotating flow, the Ekman number
is the ratio of viscous forces to
Coriolis forces. When the Ekman number is small, disturbances are able to propagate before
decaying owing to frictional effects. The Ekman number describes the order of magnitude for the
thickness of an Ekman layer, a boundary layer in which viscous diffusion is balanced by Coriolis
effects, rather than the usual convective inertia.

Definitions
It is defined as:

- where D is a characteristic (usually vertical) length scale of a phenomenon; , the kinematic

eddy viscosity; , the angular velocity of planetary rotation; and , the latitude. The term 2 sin
is the Coriolis frequency. It is given in terms of the kinematic viscosity , the angular velocity
, and a characteristic lengthscale .
There do appear to be some differing conventions in the literature.
Tritton gives:

In contrast, the NRL Plasma Formulary gives:

13

NRL states that this latter definition is equivalent to the root of the ratio of Rossby number to
Reynolds number. There are various definitions for the Rossby number as well.

Etvs number
In fluid dynamics the Etvs number (Eo) is a dimensionless number named after Hungarian
physicist Lornd Etvs (18481919). It is also known in a slightly different form as the Bond
number (Bo), named after the English physicist Wilfrid Noel Bond (1897-1937). The term
Etvs number is more frequently used in Europe, while Bond number is commonly used in
other parts of the world.
Together with Morton number it can be used to characterize the shape of bubbles or drops
moving in a surrounding fluid. Etvs number may be regarded as proportional to buoyancy
force divided by surface tension force.

is the Etvs number

: difference in density of the two phases, (SI units : kg/m3)
: gravitational acceleration, (SI units : m/s2)
: characteristic length, (SI units : m)
: surface tension, (SI units : N/m)

A different statement of the equation is as follows:

where

is the Bond Number

is the density, or the density difference between fluids.
the acceleration associated with the body force, almost always gravity.
the 'characteristic length scale', e.g. radius of a drop or the radius of a capillary tube.
is the surface tension of the interface.

The Bond number is a measure of the importance of surface tension forces compared to body
forces. A high Bond number indicates that the system is relatively unaffected by surface tension
effects; a low number (typically less than one is the requirement) indicates that surface tension
dominates. Intermediate numbers indicate a non-trivial balance between the two effects.

14

The Bond number is the most common comparison of gravity and surface tension effects and it
may be derived in a number of ways, such as scaling the pressure of a drop of liquid on a solid
surface. It is usually important, however, to find the right length scale specific to a problem by
doing a ground-up scale analysis. Other dimensionless numbers are related to the Bond number:

Where
and
are respectively the Etvs, Goucher, and Deryagin numbers. The
"difference" between the Goucher and Deryagin numbers is that the Goucher number (arises in
wire coating problems) uses the letter to represent length scales while the Deryagin number
(arises in plate film thickness problems) uses .

Euler number (physics)

This article is about fluid flow calculations. For Euler's number, see e (mathematical constant).
The Euler number is a dimensionless number used in fluid flow calculations. It expresses the
relationship between a local pressure drop e.g. over a restriction and the kinetic energy per
volume, and is used to characterize losses in the flow, where a perfect frictionless flow
corresponds to an Euler number of 1.
It is defined as

where

is the density of the fluid.

is the upstream pressure.
is the downstream pressure.
is a characteristic velocity of the flow.

The cavitation number has a similar structure, but a different meaning and use:
The Cavitation number is a dimensionless number used in flow calculations. It expresses the
relationship between the difference of a local absolute pressure from the vapor pressure and the
kinetic energy per volume, and is used to characterize the potential of the flow to cavitate.
It is defined as

15

where

is the density of the fluid.

is the local pressure.
is the vapor pressure of the fluid.
is a characteristic velocity of the flow.

Froude number
The Froude number is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of a characteristic velocity
to a gravitational wave velocity. It may equivalently be defined as the ratio of a body's inertia to
gravitational forces. In fluid mechanics, the Froude number is used to determine the resistance
of a partially submerged object moving through water, and permits the comparison of objects of
different sizes. Named after William Froude, the Froude number is based on the speedlength
ratio as defined by him.
The Froude number is defined as:

where is a characteristic velocity, and is a characteristic water wave propagation velocity.

The Froude number is thus analogous to the Mach number. The greater the Froude number, the
greater the resistance.

Origins
In open channel flows, Blanger (1828) introduced first the ratio of the flow velocity to the
square root of the gravity acceleration times the flow depth. When the ratio was less than unity,
the flow behaved like a fluvial motion (i.e., subcritical flow), and like a torrential flow motion
when the ratio was greater than unity.
Quantifying resistance of floating objects is generally credited to William Froude, who used a
series of scale models to measure the resistance each model offered when towed at a given
speed. Froude's observations led him to derive the Wave-Line Theory which first described the
resistance of a shape as being a function of the waves caused by varying pressures around the
hull as it moves through the water. The naval constructor Ferdinand Reech had put forward the
concept in 1832 but had not demonstrated how it could be applied to practical problems in ship

16

resistance. Speed/length ratio was originally defined by Froude in his Law of Comparison in
1868 in dimensional terms as:

where:
v = speed in knots
LWL = length of waterline in feet

The term was converted into non-dimensional terms and was given Froude's name in recognition
of the work he did. In France, it is sometimes called ReechFroude number after Ferdinand
Reech.

Definitions of the Froude number in different applications

Ship hydrodynamics

For a ship, the Froude number is defined as:

where v is the velocity of the ship, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and L is the length of the
ship at the water line level, or Lwl in some notations. It is an important parameter with respect to
the ship's drag, or resistance, including the wave making resistance. Note that the Froude number
used for ships, by convention, is the square root of the Froude number as defined above.
Shallow water waves

For shallow water waves, like for instance tidal waves and the hydraulic jump, the characteristic
velocity v is the average flow velocity, averaged over the cross-section perpendicular to the flow
direction. The wave velocity, c, is equal to the square root of gravitational acceleration g, times
cross-sectional area A, divided by free-surface width B:

so the Froude number in shallow water is:

17

For rectangular cross-sections with uniform depth d, the Froude number can be simplified to:

For Fr < 1 the flow is called a subcritical flow, further for Fr > 1 the flow is characterised as
supercritical flow. When Fr 1 the flow is denoted as critical flow.
An alternate definition used in fluid mechanics is

where each of the terms on the right have been squared. This form is the reciprocal of the
Richardson number.

Extended Froude number

Geophysical mass flows such as avalanches and debris flows take place on inclined slopes which
then merges into a gentle and flat run-out zones. So, these flows are associated with the elevation
of the topographic slopes that induce the gravity potential energy together with the pressure
potential energy during the flow. Therefore, the classical Froude number should include this
additional effect. For such a situation, Froude number needs to be re-defined. The extended
Froude number is defined as the ratio between the kinetic and the potential energy:

where is the mean flow velocity,

,(
is the earth pressure coefficient, is the
slope),
, is the channel downslope position and
is the distance from the point
of the mass release along the channel to the point where the flow hits the horizontal reference
datum;
and
are the pressure potential and gravity potential
energies, respectively. In the classical definition of the shallow-water or granular flow Froude
number, the potential energy associated with the surface elevation,
, is not
considered. The extended Froude number differs substantially from the classical Froude number
for higher surface elevations. The term
emerges from the change of the geometry of the
moving mass along the slope. Dimensional analysis suggests that for shallow flows
is of
18

order
, while and
are both of order unity. If the mass is shallow with a
virtually bed-parallel free-surface, then
can be disregarded. In this situation, if the gravity
potential is not taken into account, then Fr is unbounded even though the kinetic energy is
bounded. So, formally considering the additional contribution due to the gravitational potential
energy, the singularity in Fr is removed.
Stirred tanks

In the study of stirred tanks, the Froude number governs the formation of surface vortices. Since
the impeller tip velocity is proportional to
, where
is the impeller speed (rev/s) and is
the impeller diameter, the Froude number then takes the following form:

Densimetric Froude number

When used in the context of the Boussinesq approximation the densimetric Froude number is
defined as

where

is the reduced gravity:

The densimetric Froude number is usually preferred by modellers who wish to

nondimensionalize a speed preference to the Richardson number which is more commonly
encountered when considering stratified shear layers. For example, the leading edge of a gravity
current moves with a front Froude number of about unity.
Walking Froude number

The Froude number may be used to study trends in animal gait patterns. In analyses of the
dynamics of legged locomotion, a walking limb is often modeled as an inverted pendulum,
where the center of mass goes through a circular arc centered at the foot. The Froude number is
the ratio of the centripetal force around the center of motion, the foot, and the weight of the
animal walking:

19

where is the mass, is the characteristic length, is the acceleration due to gravity and is the
velocity. The characteristic length, , may be chosen to suit the study at hand. For instance, some
studies have used the vertical distance of the hip joint from the ground, while others have used
total leg length.
The Froude number may also be calculated from the stride frequency

as follows:

If total leg length is used as the characteristic length, then the theoretical maximum speed of
walking has a Froude number of
since any higher value would result in 'take-off' and the foot
missing the ground. The typical transition speed from bipedal running to walking occurs with
. R. McN. Alexander found that animals of different sizes and masses travelling at
different speeds, but with the same Froude number, consistently exhibit similar gaits. This study
found that animals typically switch from an amble to a symmetric running gait (e.g., a trot or
pace) around a Froude number of
. A preference for asymmetric gaits (e.g., a canter,
transverse gallop, rotary gallop, bound, or pronk) was observed at Froude numbers between
and
.

Uses
The Froude number is used to compare the wave making resistance between bodies of various
sizes and shapes.
In free-surface flow, the nature of the flow (supercritical or subcritical) depends upon whether
the Froude number is greater than or less than unity.
The Froude number has been used to study trends in animal locomotion in order to better
understand why animals use different gait patterns as well as to form hypotheses about the gaits
of extinct species.
Froude number scaling is frequently used in construction of dynamically similar free-flying
models in which lift = weight. Since these models oppose gravity, their linear accelerations at
model scale match those of full-size aircraft.

Galilei number
In fluid dynamics, the Galilei number (Ga), sometimes also referred to as Galileo number (see
discussion), is a dimensionless number named after Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).
It may be regarded as proportional to gravity forces divided by viscous forces. The Galilei
number is used in viscous flow and thermal expansion calculations, for example to describe fluid
film flow over walls. These flows apply to condensors or chemical columns.
20

: gravitational acceleration, (SI units: m/s2)

: characteristic length, (SI units: m)
: characteristic kinematic viscosity, (SI units: m2/s)

See also

Archimedes number

21

Graetz number
In fluid dynamics, the Graetz number,
is a dimensionless number that characterises laminar
flow in a conduit. The number is defined as:

where
is the diameter in round tubes or hydraulic diameter in arbitrary cross-section ducts
is the length
is the Reynolds number and
is the Prandtl number.
This number is useful in determining the thermally developing flow entrance length in ducts. A
Graetz number of approximately 1000 or less is the point at which flow would be considered
thermally fully developed.
When used in connection with mass transfer the Prandtl number is replaced by the Schmidt
number
which expresses the ratio of the momentum diffusivity to the mass diffusivity.

The quantity is named after the physicist Leo Graetz.

Grashof number
The Grashof number
is a dimensionless number in fluid dynamics and heat transfer which
approximates the ratio of the buoyancy to viscous force acting on a fluid. It frequently arises in
the study of situations involving natural convection. It is named after the German engineer Franz
Grashof.

for vertical flat plates

for pipes

22

for bluff bodies

where the L and D subscripts indicates the length scale basis for the Grashof Number.
g = acceleration due to Earth's gravity
= volumetric thermal expansion coefficient (equal to approximately 1/T, for ideal fluids, where
T is absolute temperature)
Ts = surface temperature
T = bulk temperature
L = length
D = diameter
= kinematic viscosity

The transition to turbulent flow occurs in the range

for natural convection
from vertical flat plates. At higher Grashof numbers, the boundary layer is turbulent; at lower
Grashof numbers, the boundary layer is laminar.
The product of the Grashof number and the Prandtl number gives the Rayleigh number, a
dimensionless number that characterizes convection problems in heat transfer.
There is an analogous form of the Grashof number used in cases of natural convection mass
transfer problems.

where

and
g = acceleration due to Earth's gravity
Ca,s = concentration of species a at surface
Ca,a = concentration of species a in ambient medium
23

L = characteristic length
= kinematic viscosity
= fluid density
Ca = concentration of species a
T = constant temperature
p = constant pressure

Derivation of Grashof Number

The first step to deriving the Grashof Number Gr is manipulating the volume expansion
coefficient, as follows:

This partial relation of the volume expansion coefficient,

constant pressure can be rewritten as

with respect to fluid density,

and

and
- bulk fluid density - boundary layer density
between boundary layer and bulk fluid

- temperature difference

There are two different ways to find the Grashof Number from this point. One involves the
energy equation while the other incorporates the buoyant force due to the difference in density
between the boundary layer and bulk fluid.
Energy Equation

This discussion involving the energy equation is with respect to rotationally symmetric flow.
This analysis will take into consideration the effect of gravitational acceleration on flow and heat
transfer. The mathematical equations to follow apply both to rotational symmetric flow as well
as two-dimensional planar flow.

24

- rotational direction

- tangential velocity - planar direction

- normal velocity

- radius

This equation expands to the following with the addition of physical fluid properties:

In this equation the superscript n is to differentiate between rotationally symmetric flow from
planar flow. The following characteristics of this equation hold true.
- rotationally
symmetric flow
- planar, two-dimensional flow - gravitational acceleration
From here we can further simplify the momentum equation by setting the bulk fluid velocity to
0.

This relation shows that the pressure gradient is simply a product of the bulk fluid density and
the gravitational acceleration. The next step is to plug in the pressure gradient into the
momentum equation.

Further simplification of the momentum equation comes by substituting the volume expansion
coefficient, density relationship
equation.

found above into the momentum

To find the Grashof Number from this point the preceding equation must be non-dimesionalized.
This means that every variable in the equation should have no dimension. This is done by
dividing each variable by corresponding constant quantities. Lengths are divided by a
characteristic length
. Velocities are divided by appropriate reference velocities
which
considering the Reynolds number gives
Temperatures are divided by the appropriate
temperature difference
These dimensionless parameters look like the following:

25

The asterisks represent dimensionless parameter. Combining these dimensionless equations with
the momentum equations gives the following simplified equation.

- surface temperature

- bulk fluid temperature

- characteristic length

The dimensionless parameter enclosed in the brackets in the preceding equation is known as the
Grashof Number

Buckingham Pi Theorem

Another form of dimensional analysis that will result in the Grashof Number is known as the
Buckingham Pi theorem. This method takes into account the buoyancy force per unit volume,
due to the density difference in the boundary layer and the bulk fluid.
This equation can be manipulated to give,

The list of variables that are used in the Buckingham Pi method is listed below, along with their
symbols and dimensions.
Variable

Symbol Dimensions

Significant Length
Fluid Viscosity

Fluid Heat Capacity

Fluid Thermal Conductivity

26

Volume Expansion Coefficient

Gravitational Acceleration
Temperature Difference
Heat Transfer Coefficient

With reference to the Buckingham Pi Theorem there are 9-5=4 dimensionless groups. Choose L,
k, g and as the reference variables. Thus the groups are as follows:
,
,
,
.
Solving these

groups gives:

,
,

From the two groups

and

the product forms the Grashof Number

27

Taking
and
the preceding equation can be rendered as the same
result from deriving the Grashof Number from the energy equation.

In forced convection the Reynolds Number governs the fluid flow. But, in natural convection the
Grashof Number is the dimensionless parameter that governs the fluid flow. Using the energy
equation and the buoyant force combined with dimensional analysis provides two different ways
to derive the Grashof Number.

Grtler vortices
In fluid dynamics, Grtler vortices are secondary flows that appears in a boundary layer flow
along a concave wall. If the boundary layer is thin compared to the radius of curvature of the
wall, the pressure remains constant across the boundary layer. On the other hand, if the boundary
layer thickness is comparable to the radius of curvature, the centrifugal action creates a pressure
variation across the boundary layer. This leads to the centrifugal instability (Grtler instability)
of the boundary layer and consequent formation of Grtler vortices.

Grtler number
The onset of Grtler vortices can be predicted using the dimensionless number called Grtler
number. It is the ratio of centrifugal effects to the viscous effects in the boundary layer and is
defined as

where
= external velocity , = momentum thickness
= kinematic viscosity , = radius of curvature of the wall
Grtler instability occurs when

exceeds, about 0.3.

Hagen number
28

The Hagen number is a dimensionless number used in forced flow calculations. It is the forced
flow equivalent of the Grashof number and was named after the German hydraulic engineer G.
H. L. Hagen.
It is defined as:

where:

is the pressure gradient

L is a characteristic length
is the fluid density
is the kinematic viscosity

For natural convection

and so the Hagen number then coincides with the Grashof number.

KeuleganCarpenter number
In fluid dynamics, the KeuleganCarpenter number, also called the period number, is a
dimensionless quantity describing the relative importance of the drag forces over inertia forces
for bluff objects in an oscillatory fluid flow. Or similarly, for objects that oscillate in a fluid at
rest. For small KeuleganCarpenter number inertia dominates, while for large numbers the
(turbulence) drag forces are important.
The KeuleganCarpenter number KC is defined as:

where:

V is the amplitude of the flow velocity oscillation (or the amplitude of the object's
velocity, in case of an oscillating object),
T is the period of the oscillation, and
29

L is a characteristic length scale of the object, for instance the diameter for a cylinder
under wave loading.

The KeuleganCarpenter number is named after Garbis H. Keulegan (18901989) and Lloyd H.
Carpenter.
A closely related parameter, also often used for sediment transport under water waves, is the
displacement parameter :

with A the excursion amplitude of fluid particles in oscillatory flow. For sinusoidal motion of the
fluid, A is related to V and T as A = VT/(2), and:

The KeuleganCarpenter number can be directly related to the NavierStokes equations, by

looking at characteristic scales for the acceleration terms:

convective acceleration:

local acceleration:

Dividing these two acceleration scales gives the KeuleganCarpenter number.

A somewhat similar parameter is the Strouhal number, in form equal to the reciprocal of the
KeuleganCarpenter number. The Strouhal number gives the vortex shedding frequency
resulting from placing an object in a steady flow, so it describes the flow unsteadiness as a result
of an instability of the flow downstream of the object. Conversely, the KeuleganCarpenter
number is related to the oscillation frequency of an unsteady flow into which the object is placed.

See also

Morison equation

30

Knudsen number
The Knudsen number (Kn) is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of the molecular
mean free path length to a representative physical length scale. This length scale could be, for
example, the radius of the body in a fluid. The number is named after Danish physicist Martin
Knudsen (18711949).

Definition
The Knudsen number is a dimensionless number defined as:

where

= mean free path [L1]

= representative physical length scale [L1].

For an ideal gas, the mean free path may be readily calculated so that:

where

is the Boltzmann constant (1.3806504(24) 1023 J/K in SI units), [M1 L2 T-2 -1]
is the thermodynamic temperature, [1]
is the particle hard shell diameter, [L1]
is the total pressure, [M1 L-1 T-2].

For particle dynamics in the atmosphere, and assuming standard temperature and pressure, i.e. 25
C and 1 atm, we have 8 108 m.

Relationship to Mach and Reynolds numbers in gases

The Knudsen number can be related to the Mach number and the Reynolds number:
Noting the following:
Dynamic viscosity,

31

Average molecule speed (from Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution),

thus the mean free path,

dividing through by L (some characteristic length) the Knudsen number is obtained:

where

is the average molecular speed from the MaxwellBoltzmann distribution, [L1 T-1]
T is the thermodynamic temperature, [1]
is the dynamic viscosity, [M1 L-1 T-1]
m is the molecular mass, [M1]
kB is the Boltzmann constant, [M1 L2 T-2 -1]
is the density, [M1 L-3].

The dimensionless Mach number can be written:

where the speed of sound is given by

where

U is the freestream speed, [L1 T-1]

R is the Universal gas constant, (in SI, 8.314 47215 J K1 mol1), [M1 L2 T-2 -1 'mol'-1]
M is the molar mass, [M1 'mol'-1]
is the ratio of specific heats, and is dimensionless.
32

The dimensionless Reynolds number can be written:

Dividing the Mach number by the Reynolds number,

and by multiplying by

yields the Knudsen number.

The Mach, Reynolds and Knudsen numbers are therefore related by:

Application
The Knudsen number is useful for determining whether statistical mechanics or the continuum
mechanics formulation of fluid dynamics should be used: If the Knudsen number is near or
greater than one, the mean free path of a molecule is comparable to a length scale of the problem,
and the continuum assumption of fluid mechanics is no longer a good approximation. In this case
statistical methods must be used.
Problems with high Knudsen numbers include the calculation of the motion of a dust particle
through the lower atmosphere, or the motion of a satellite through the exosphere. One of the
most widely used applications for the Knudsen number is in microfluidics and MEMS device
design. The solution of the flow around an aircraft has a low Knudsen number, making it firmly
in the realm of continuum mechanics. Using the Knudsen number an adjustment for Stokes' Law
can be used in the Cunningham correction factor, this is a drag force correction due to slip in
small particles (i.e. dp < 5 m).

See also

Cunningham correction factor

33

Fluid dynamics
Mach number
Knudsen Flow
Knudsen diffusion

Laplace number
The Laplace number (La), also known as the Suratman number (Su), is a dimensionless
number used in the characterization of free surface fluid dynamics. It represents a ratio of surface
tension to the momentum-transport (especially dissipation) inside a fluid.
It is defined as follows:

where:

= surface tension
= density
L = length
= liquid viscosity

Laplace number is related to Reynolds number (Re) and Weber number (We) in the following
way:

See also

Ohnesorge number - There is an inverse relationship,

Laplace number and the Ohnesorge number

34

, between the

Lewis number
Lewis number is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of thermal diffusivity to mass
diffusivity. It is used to characterize fluid flows where there is simultaneous heat and mass
transfer by convection.
It is defined as:

where

is the thermal diffusivity and

is the mass diffusivity.

The Lewis number can also be stated in terms of the Schmidt number and the Prandtl number :

.
It is named after Warren K. Lewis (18821975), who was the first head of the Chemical
Engineering Department at MIT. Some workers in the field of combustion assume (incorrectly)
that the Lewis number was named for Bernard Lewis (18991993), who for many years was a
major figure in the field of combustion research.

Mach number
In fluid mechanics, Mach number (
or
) (/mx/) is a dimensionless quantity
representing the ratio of speed of an object moving through a fluid and the local speed of sound.

where
is the Mach number,
is the velocity of the source relative to the medium, and
is the speed of sound in the medium.

Mach number varies by the composition of the surrounding medium and also by local conditions,
especially temperature and pressure. The Mach number can be used to determine if a flow can be
35

treated as an incompressible flow. If M < 0.20.3 and the flow is (quasi) steady and isothermal,
compressibility effects will be small and a simplified incompressible flow model can be used.
The Mach number is named after Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach, a designation
proposed by aeronautical engineer Jakob Ackeret. Because the Mach number is often viewed as
a dimensionless quantity rather than a unit of measure, with Mach, the number comes after the
unit; the second Mach number is "Mach 2" instead of "2 Mach" (or Machs). This is somewhat
reminiscent of the early modern ocean sounding unit "mark" (a synonym for fathom), which was
also unit-first, and may have influenced the use of the term Mach. In the decade preceding fasterthan-sound human flight, aeronautical engineers referred to the speed of sound as Mach's
number, never "Mach 1."
In French, the Mach number is sometimes called the "nombre de Sarrau" ("Sarrau number") after
mile Sarrau who researched into explosions in the 1870s and 1880s.

Overview
The Mach number is commonly used both with objects traveling at high speed in a fluid, and
with high-speed fluid flows inside channels such as nozzles, diffusers or wind tunnels. As it is
defined as a ratio of two speeds, it is a dimensionless number. At Standard Sea Level conditions
(corresponding to a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius), the speed of sound is 340.3 m/s (1225
km/h, or 761.2 mph, or 661.5 knots, or 1116 ft/s) in the Earth's atmosphere. The speed
represented by Mach 1 is not a constant; for example, it is mostly dependent on temperature and
atmospheric composition and largely independent of pressure. Since the speed of sound increases
as the temperature increases, the actual speed of an object traveling at Mach 1 will depend on the
fluid temperature around it. Mach number is useful because the fluid behaves in a similar way at
the same Mach number. So, an aircraft traveling at Mach 1 at 20C or 68F, at sea level, will
experience shock waves in much the same manner as when it is traveling at Mach 1 at 11,000 m
(36,000 ft) at 50C or 58F, even though it is traveling at only 86% of its speed at higher
temperature like 20C or 68F.

Classification of Mach regimes

While the terms "subsonic" and "supersonic" in the purest verbal sense refer to speeds below and
above the local speed of sound respectively, aerodynamicists often use the same terms to talk
about particular ranges of Mach values. This occurs because of the presence of a "transonic
regime" around M=1 where approximations of the Navier-Stokes equations used for subsonic
design actually no longer apply, the simplest of many reasons being that the flow locally begins
to exceed M=1 even when the freestream Mach number is below this value.
Meanwhile, the "supersonic regime" is usually used to talk about the set of Mach numbers for
which linearised theory may be used, where for example the (air) flow is not chemically reacting,
and where heat-transfer between air and vehicle may be reasonably neglected in calculations.

36

In the following table, the "regimes" or "ranges of Mach values" are referred to, and not the
"pure" meanings of the words "subsonic" and "supersonic".
Generally, NASA defines "high" hypersonic as any Mach number from 10 to 25, and re-entry
speeds as anything greater than Mach 25. Aircraft operating in this regime include the Space
Shuttle and various space planes in development.
Regime

Mach

Subsonic <0.8

Transonic

Supersonic

0.81.2

1.2
5.0

5.0
Hypersonic
10.0

mph

km/h

m/s

General plane characteristics

<610

<980

<270

Most often propeller-driven and commercial turbofan

aircraft with high aspect-ratio (slender) wings, and
rounded features like the nose and leading edges.

610-915

9801,470

270410

Transonic aircraft nearly always have swept wings,

delaying drag-divergence, and often feature design
adhering to the principles of the Whitcomb Area rule.
Aircraft designed to fly at supersonic speeds show large
differences in their aerodynamic design because of the
radical differences in the behaviour of flows above Mach
1. Sharp edges, thin aerofoil-sections, and all-moving
tailplane/canards are common. Modern combat aircraft
must compromise in order to maintain low-speed
handling; "true" supersonic designs include the F-104
Starfighter and BAC/Arospatiale Concorde.

9153,840

1,470
6,150

410
1,710

3,840
7,680

6,150
12,300

Cooled nickel-titanium skin; highly integrated (due to

1,710 domination of interference effects: non-linear behaviour
3,415 means that superposition of results for separate
components is invalid), small wings, see X-51A Waverider

High10.0 7,680
hypersonic 25.0 16,250

Thermal control becomes a dominant design

consideration. Structure must either be designed to
operate hot, or be protected by special silicate tiles or
12,300 3,415 similar. Chemically reacting flow can also cause corrosion
of the vehicle's skin, with free-atomic oxygen featuring in
30,740 8,465
very high-speed flows. Hypersonic designs are often
forced into blunt configurations because of the
aerodynamic heating rising with a reduced radius of
curvature.

Re-entry
>25.0 >16,250 >30,740 >8,465 Ablative heat shield; small or no wings; blunt shape
speeds

High-speed flow around objects

Flight can be roughly classified in six categories:
37

Regime Subsonic Transonic Sonic Supersonic Hypersonic

Mach

<1.0

0.81.2

1.0

1.25.0

5.010.0

Highhypersonic
>10.0

For comparison: the required speed for low Earth orbit is approximately 7.5 km/s = Mach 25.4 in
air at high altitudes. The speed of light in a vacuum corresponds to a Mach number of
approximately 881,000 (relative to air at sea level).
At transonic speeds, the flow field around the object includes both sub- and supersonic parts. The
transonic period begins when first zones of M>1 flow appear around the object. In case of an
airfoil (such as an aircraft's wing), this typically happens above the wing. Supersonic flow can
decelerate back to subsonic only in a normal shock; this typically happens before the trailing
edge. (Fig.1a)
As the speed increases, the zone of M>1 flow increases towards both leading and trailing edges.
As M=1 is reached and passed, the normal shock reaches the trailing edge and becomes a weak
oblique shock: the flow decelerates over the shock, but remains supersonic. A normal shock is
created ahead of the object, and the only subsonic zone in the flow field is a small area around
the object's leading edge. (Fig.1b)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 1. Mach number in transonic airflow around an airfoil; M<1 (a) and M>1 (b).
When an aircraft exceeds Mach 1 (i.e. the sound barrier) a large pressure difference is created
just in front of the aircraft. This abrupt pressure difference, called a shock wave, spreads
backward and outward from the aircraft in a cone shape (a so-called Mach cone). It is this shock
wave that causes the sonic boom heard as a fast moving aircraft travels overhead. A person
inside the aircraft will not hear this. The higher the speed, the more narrow the cone; at just over
M=1 it is hardly a cone at all, but closer to a slightly concave plane.

38

At fully supersonic speed, the shock wave starts to take its cone shape and flow is either
completely supersonic, or (in case of a blunt object), only a very small subsonic flow area
remains between the object's nose and the shock wave it creates ahead of itself. (In the case of a
sharp object, there is no air between the nose and the shock wave: the shock wave starts from the
nose.)
As the Mach number increases, so does the strength of the shock wave and the Mach cone
becomes increasingly narrow. As the fluid flow crosses the shock wave, its speed is reduced and
temperature, pressure, and density increase. The stronger the shock, the greater the changes. At
high enough Mach numbers the temperature increases so much over the shock that ionization and
dissociation of gas molecules behind the shock wave begin. Such flows are called hypersonic.
It is clear that any object traveling at hypersonic speeds will likewise be exposed to the same
extreme temperatures as the gas behind the nose shock wave, and hence choice of heat-resistant
materials becomes important.

High-speed flow in a channel

As a flow in a channel becomes supersonic, one significant change takes place. The conservation
of mass flow rate leads one to expect that contracting the flow channel would increase the flow
speed (i.e. making the channel narrower results in faster air flow) and at subsonic speeds this
holds true. However, once the flow becomes supersonic, the relationship of flow area and speed
is reversed: expanding the channel actually increases the speed.
The obvious result is that in order to accelerate a flow to supersonic, one needs a convergentdivergent nozzle, where the converging section accelerates the flow to sonic speeds, and the
diverging section continues the acceleration. Such nozzles are called de Laval nozzles and in
extreme cases they are able to reach hypersonic speeds (Mach 13 (9,896 mph; 15,926 km/h) at
20C).
An aircraft Machmeter or electronic flight information system (EFIS) can display Mach number
derived from stagnation pressure (pitot tube) and static pressure.

Calculation
The Mach number at which an aircraft is flying can be calculated by

where:
is Mach number
is velocity of the moving aircraft and
39

is the speed of sound at the given altitude

Note that the dynamic pressure can be found as:

Assuming air to be an ideal gas, the formula to compute Mach number in a subsonic
compressible flow is derived from Bernoulli's equation for M<1:

where:
is impact pressure (dynamic pressure) and
is static pressure
is the ratio of specific heat of a gas at a constant pressure to heat at a constant volume (1.4
for air).

The formula to compute Mach number in a supersonic compressible flow is derived from the
Rayleigh Supersonic Pitot equation:

Calculating Mach Number from Pitot Tube Pressure

At altitude, for reasons explained, Mach number is a function of temperature. Aircraft flight
instruments, however, operate using pressure differential to compute Mach number, not
temperature. The assumption is that a particular pressure represents a particular altitude and,
therefore, a standard temperature. Aircraft flight instruments need to operate this way because
the stagnation pressure sensed by a Pitot tube is dependent on altitude as well as speed.
Assuming air to be an ideal gas, the formula to compute Mach number in a subsonic
compressible flow is found from Bernoulli's equation for M<1 (above):

40

The formula to compute Mach number in a supersonic compressible flow can be found from the
Rayleigh Supersonic Pitot equation (above) using parameters for air:

where
is dynamic pressure measured behind a normal shock

As can be seen, M appears on both sides of the equation. The easiest method to solve the
supersonic M calculation is to enter both the subsonic and supersonic equations into a computer
spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice.org Calc, or some equivalent program. First
determine if M is indeed greater than 1.0 by calculating M from the subsonic equation. If M is
greater than 1.0 at that point, then use the value of M from the subsonic equation as the initial
condition in the supersonic equation. Then perform a simple iteration of the supersonic equation,
each time using the last computed value of M, until M converges to a valueusually in just a
few iterations.

Marangoni number
The Marangoni number (Mg) is a dimensionless number named after Italian scientist Carlo
Marangoni. The Marangoni number may be regarded as proportional to (thermal-) surface
tension forces divided by viscous forces. It is for example applicable to bubble and foam
research or calculations of cryogenic spacecraft propellant behavior.

: surface tension, (SI units: N/m)

: characteristic length, (SI units: m)
: thermal diffusivity, (SI units: m/s)
: dynamic viscosity, (SI units: kg/(sm)),
: temperature difference, (SI units: K),

41

Morton number
In fluid dynamics, the Morton number (
) is a dimensionless number used together with the
Etvs number to characterize the shape of bubbles or drops moving in a surrounding fluid or
continuous phase, c. The Morton number is defined as

where g is the acceleration of gravity,

is the viscosity of the surrounding fluid, the density
of the surrounding fluid,
the difference in density of the phases, and is the surface tension
coefficient. For the case of a bubble with a negligible inner density the Morton number can be
simplified to

The Morton number can also be expressed by using a combination of the Weber number, Froude
number and Reynolds number,

The Froude number in the above expression is defined as

where V is a reference velocity and d is the equivalent diameter of the drop or bubble.

Nusselt number
In heat transfer at a boundary (surface) within a fluid, the Nusselt number is the ratio of
convective to conductive heat transfer across (normal to) the boundary. In this context,
convection includes both advection and conduction. Named after Wilhelm Nusselt, it is a
dimensionless number. The conductive component is measured under the same conditions as the
heat convection but with a (hypothetically) stagnant (or motionless) fluid.
42

A Nusselt number close to one, namely convection and conduction of similar magnitude, is
characteristic of "slug flow" or laminar flow. A larger Nusselt number corresponds to more
active convection, with turbulent flow typically in the 1001000 range.
The convection and conduction heat flows are parallel to each other and to the surface normal of
the boundary surface, and are all perpendicular to the mean fluid flow in the simple case.

where:

L = characteristic length
kf = thermal conductivity of the fluid
h = convective heat transfer coefficient

Selection of the characteristic length should be in the direction of growth (or thickness) of the
boundary layer. Some examples of characteristic length are: the outer diameter of a cylinder in
(external) cross flow (perpendicular to the cylinder axis), the length of a vertical plate
undergoing natural convection, or the diameter of a sphere. For complex shapes, the length may
be defined as the volume of the fluid body divided by the surface area. The thermal conductivity
of the fluid is typically (but not always) evaluated at the film temperature, which for engineering
purposes may be calculated as the mean-average of the bulk fluid temperature and wall surface
temperature. For relations defined as a local Nusselt number, one should take the characteristic
length to be the distance from the surface boundary to the local point of interest. However, to
obtain an average Nusselt number, one must integrate said relation over the entire characteristic
length.
Typically, for free convection, the average Nusselt number is expressed as a function of the
Rayleigh number and the Prandtl number, written as: Nu = f(Ra, Pr). Else, for forced convection,
the Nusselt number is generally a function of the Reynolds number and the Prandtl number, or
Nu = f(Re, Pr). Empirical correlations for a wide variety of geometries are available that express
the Nusselt number in the aforementioned forms.
The mass transfer analog of the Nusselt number is the Sherwood number.

Derivation
The Nusselt number may be obtained by a non dimensional analysis of the Fourier's law since it
is equal to the dimensionless temperature gradient at the surface:
, where q is the heat flux, k is the thermal conductivity and T the fluid
temperature.

43

Indeed if:

, and

we arrive at :

then we define :
so the equation becomes :
By integrating over the surface of the body:

, where

Empirical Correlations
Free convection
Free convection at a vertical wall

Cited as coming from Churchill and Chu:

Free convection from horizontal plates

If the characteristic length is defined

where
is the surface area of the plate and is its perimeter, then for the top surface of a hot
object in a colder environment or bottom surface of a cold object in a hotter environment

44

And for the bottom surface of a hot object in a colder environment or top surface of a cold object
in a hotter environment

Flat plate in laminar flow

The local Nusselt number for laminar flow over a flat plate is given by

Flat plate in turbulent flow

The local Nusselt number for turbulent flow over a flat plate is given by

Forced convection in turbulent pipe flow

Gnielinski correlation

Gnielinski is a correlation for turbulent flow in tubes:

where f is the Darcy friction factor that can either be obtained from the Moody chart or for
smooth tubes from correlation developed by Petukhov:

The Gnielinski Correlation is valid for:

Dittus-Boelter equation

The Dittus-Boelter equation (for turbulent flow) is an explicit function for calculating the Nusselt
number. It is easy to solve but is less accurate when there is a large temperature difference across
the fluid. It is tailored to smooth tubes, so use for rough tubes (most commercial applications) is
cautioned. The Dittus-Boelter equation is:
45

where:
is the inside diameter of the circular duct
is the Prandtl number
for heating of the fluid, and

for cooling of the fluid.

The Dittus-Boelter equation is valid for

Example The Dittus-Boelter equation is a good approximation where temperature differences

between bulk fluid and heat transfer surface are minimal, avoiding equation complexity and
iterative solving. Taking water with a bulk fluid average temperature of 20 C, viscosity
10.0710 Pas and a heat transfer surface temperature of 40 C (viscosity 6.9610, a
viscosity correction factor for
can be obtained as 1.45. This increases to 3.57 with a heat
transfer surface temperature of 100 C (viscosity 2.8210 Pas), making a significant
difference to the Nusselt number and the heat transfer coefficient.
Sieder-Tate correlation

The Sieder-Tate correlation for turbulent flow is an implicit function, as it analyzes the system as
a nonlinear boundary value problem. The Sieder-Tate result can be more accurate as it takes into
account the change in viscosity ( and
) due to temperature change between the bulk fluid
average temperature and the heat transfer surface temperature, respectively. The Sieder-Tate
correlation is normally solved by an iterative process, as the viscosity factor will change as the
Nusselt number changes.

where:
is the fluid viscosity at the bulk fluid temperature
Is the fluid viscosity at the heat-transfer boundary surface temperature
46

The Sieder-Tate correlation is valid for

Forced convection in fully developed laminar pipe flow

For fully developed internal laminar flow, the Nusselt numbers are constant-valued. The values
depend on the hydraulic diameter.
For internal Flow:

where:
Dh = Hydraulic diameter
kf = thermal conductivity of the fluid
h = convective heat transfer coefficient
Convection with uniform surface heat flux for circular tubes

From Incropera & DeWitt,

Convection with uniform surface temperature for circular tubes

For the case of constant surface temperature,

47

Ohnesorge number
The Ohnesorge number, Oh, is a dimensionless number that relates the viscous forces to inertial
and surface tension forces.

It is defined as:
Where

is the liquid viscosity

is the liquid density
is the surface tension
L is the characteristic length scale (typically drop diameter)
Re is the Reynolds number
We is the Weber number

Applications
The Ohnesorge number for a 3 mm diameter rain drop is typically ~0.002. Larger Ohnesorge
numbers indicate a greater influence of the viscosity .
This is often used to relate to free surface fluid dynamics such as dispersion of liquids in gases
and in spray technology.

See also

Laplace number - There is an inverse relationship,

, between the
Laplace number and the Ohnesorge number. It is more historically correct to use the
Ohnesorge number, but often mathematically neater to use the Laplace number

48

Pclet number
The Pclet number is a dimensionless number relevant in the study of transport phenomena in
fluid flows. It is named after the French physicist Jean Claude Eugne Pclet. It is defined to be
the ratio of the rate of advection of a physical quantity by the flow to the rate of diffusion of the
same quantity driven by an appropriate gradient. In the context of the transport of heat, the Peclet
number is equivalent to the product of the Reynolds number and the Prandtl number. In the
context of species or mass dispersion, the Peclet number is the product of the Reynolds number
and the Schmidt number.
For diffusion of heat (thermal diffusion), the Pclet number is defined as:

For diffusion of particles (mass diffusion), it is defined as:

where L is the characteristic length, U the velocity, D the mass diffusion coefficient, and the
thermal diffusivity,

where k is the thermal conductivity, the density, and

the heat capacity.

In engineering applications the Pclet number is often very large. In such situations, the
dependency of the flow upon downstream locations is diminished, and variables in the flow tend
to become 'one-way' properties. Thus, when modeling certain situations with high Pclet
numbers, simpler computational models can be adopted.
A flow will often have different Pclet numbers for heat and mass. This can lead to the
phenomenon of double diffusive convection.
In the context of particulate motion the Pclet numbers have also been called Brenner numbers,
with symbol Br, in honour of Howard Brenner.

See also

Nusselt number

49

Prandtl number
The Prandtl number
is a dimensionless number; the ratio of momentum diffusivity
(kinematic viscosity) to thermal diffusivity. It is named after the German physicist Ludwig
Prandtl.
It is defined as:

where:
, (SI units : m2/s)

: kinematic viscosity,

: thermal diffusivity,
, (SI units : m2/s)
: dynamic viscosity, (SI units : Pa s = N s/m2
: thermal conductivity, (SI units : W/(m K) )
: specific heat, (SI units : J/(kg K) )
: density, (SI units : kg/m3 ).

Note that whereas the Reynolds number and Grashof number are subscripted with a length scale
variable, the Prandtl number contains no such length scale in its definition and is dependent only
on the fluid and the fluid state. As such, the Prandtl number is often found in property tables
alongside other properties such as viscosity and thermal conductivity.
Typical values for
(Low

(High

are:

- thermal diffusivity dominant)

around 0.015 for mercury
around 0.16-0.7 for mixtures of noble gases or noble gases with hydrogen
around 0.7-0.8 for air and many other gases,
between 4 and 5 for R-12 refrigerant
around 7 for water (At 20 degrees Celsius)
13.4 and 7.2 for seawater (At 0 degrees Celsius and 20 degrees Celsius respectively)
between 100 and 40,000 for engine oil
around 11025 for Earth's mantle.
- momentum diffusivity dominant)

For mercury, heat conduction is very effective compared to convection: thermal diffusivity is
dominant. For engine oil, convection is very effective in transferring energy from an area,
compared to pure conduction: momentum diffusivity is dominant.

50

In heat transfer problems, the Prandtl number controls the relative thickness of the momentum
and thermal boundary layers. When Pr is small, it means that the heat diffuses very quickly
compared to the velocity (momentum). This means that for liquid metals the thickness of the
thermal boundary layer is much bigger than the velocity boundary layer.
The mass transfer analog of the Prandtl number is the Schmidt number.

See also

Turbulent Prandtl number

Magnetic Prandtl number

Magnetic Prandtl number

The Magnetic Prandtl number is a dimensionless quantity occurring in magnetohydrodynamics
which approximates the ratio of momentum diffusivity (viscosity) and magnetic diffusivity. It is
defined as:

where:

is the magnetic Reynolds number

is the Reynolds number
is the momentum diffusivity (kinematic viscosity)
is the magnetic diffusivity

At the base of the Sun's convection zone the Magnetic Prandtl number is approximately
and in the interiors of planets and in liquid-metal laboratory dynamos is approximately

51

,
.

Turbulent Prandtl number

The turbulent Prandtl number (
) is a non-dimensional term defined as the ratio between
the momentum eddy diffusivity and the heat transfer eddy diffusivity. It is useful for solving the
heat transfer problem of turbulent boundary layer flows. The simplest model for
is the
Reynolds analogy, which yields a turbulent Prandtl number of 1. From experimental data,
has an average value of 0.85, but ranges from 0.7 to 0.9 depending on the Prandtl number of the
fluid in question.

Definition
The introduction of eddy diffusivity and subsequently the turbulent Prandtl number works as a
way to define a simple relationship between the extra shear stress and heat flux that is present in
turbulent flow. If the momentum and thermal eddy diffusivities are zero (no apparent turbulent
shear stress and heat flux), then the turbulent flow equations reduce to the laminar equations. We
can define the eddy diffusivities for momentum transfer
and heat transfer
as
and
where
is the apparent turbulent shear stress and
The turbulent Prandtl number is then defined as

is the apparent turbulent heat flux.

The turbulent Prandtl number has been shown to not generally equal unity (e.g. Malhotra and
Kang, 1984; Kays, 1994; McEligot and Taylor, 1996; and Churchill, 2002). It is a strong
function of the moleculer Prandtl number amongst other parameters and the Reynolds Analogy is
not applicable when the moleculer Prandtl number differs significantly from unity as determined
by Malhotra and Kang; and elaborated by McEligot and Taylor and Churchill

Application
Turbulent momentum boundary layer equation:

Turbulent thermal boundary layer equation,

Substituting the eddy diffusivities into the
momentum and thermal equations yields

and
52

Substitute into the thermal equation using the definition of the turbulent Prandtl number to get

Consequences
In the special case where the Prandtl number and turbulent Prandtl number both equal unity (as
in the Reynolds analogy), the velocity profile and temperature profiles are identical. This greatly
simplifies the solution of the heat transfer problem. If the Prandtl number and turbulent Prandtl
number are different from unity, then a solution is possible by knowing the turbulent Prandtl
number so that one can still solve the momentum and thermal equations.
In a general case of three-dimensional turbulence, the concept of eddy viscosity and eddy
diffusivity are not valid. Consequently, the turbulent Prandtl number has no meaning.

Rayleigh number
In fluid mechanics, the Rayleigh number for a fluid is a dimensionless number associated with
buoyancy driven flow (also known as free convection or natural convection). When the Rayleigh
number is below the critical value for that fluid, heat transfer is primarily in the form of
conduction; when it exceeds the critical value, heat transfer is primarily in the form of
convection.
The Rayleigh number is named after Lord Rayleigh and is defined as the product of the Grashof
number, which describes the relationship between buoyancy and viscosity within a fluid, and the
Prandtl number, which describes the relationship between momentum diffusivity and thermal
diffusivity. Hence the Rayleigh number itself may also be viewed as the ratio of buoyancy and
viscosity forces times the ratio of momentum and thermal diffusivities.

Definition
For free convection near a vertical wall, the Rayleigh number is defined as

53

where

x = Characteristic length (in this case, the distance from the leading edge)
Rax = Rayleigh number at position x
Grx = Grashof number at position x
Pr = Prandtl number
g = acceleration due to gravity
Ts = Surface temperature (temperature of the wall)
T = Quiescent temperature (fluid temperature far from the surface of the object)
= Kinematic viscosity
= Thermal diffusivity
= Thermal expansion coefficient (equals to 1/T, for ideal gases, where T is absolute
temperature)

In the above, the fluid properties Pr, , and are evaluated at the film temperature, which is
defined as

For most engineering purposes, the Rayleigh number is large, somewhere around 106 to 108.
Geophysical applications

In geophysics, the Rayleigh number is of fundamental importance: it indicates the presence and
strength of convection within a fluid body such as the Earth's mantle. The mantle is a solid that
behaves as a fluid over geological time scales. The Rayleigh number for the Earth's mantle, due
to internal heating alone, RaH is given by

where H is the rate of radiogenic heat production, k is the thermal conductivity, and D is the
depth of the mantle.
A Rayleigh number for bottom heating of the mantle from the core, RaT can also be defined:

Where Tsa is the superadiabatic temperature difference between

the reference mantle temperature and the Coremantle boundary and c is the specific heat
capacity, which is a function of both pressure and temperature.

High values for the Earth's mantle indicates that convection within the Earth is vigorous and

54

time-varying, and that convection is responsible for almost all the heat transported from the deep
interior to the surface.

See also

Grashof number
Prandtl number
Reynolds number
Pclet number
Nusselt number

Reynolds number

A vortex street around a cylinder. This occurs around cylinders, for any fluid, cylinder size and fluid
speed, provided that there is a Reynolds number of between ~40 and 103.

In fluid mechanics, the Reynolds number (Re) is a dimensionless number that gives a measure
of the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces and consequently quantifies the relative
importance of these two types of forces for given flow conditions.
The concept was introduced by George Gabriel Stokes in 1851, but the Reynolds number is
named after Osborne Reynolds (18421912), who popularized its use in 1883.
Reynolds numbers frequently arise when performing dimensional analysis of fluid dynamics
problems, and as such can be used to determine dynamic similitude between different
experimental cases.
They are also used to characterize different flow regimes, such as laminar or turbulent flow:
laminar flow occurs at low Reynolds numbers, where viscous forces are dominant, and is
characterized by smooth, constant fluid motion; turbulent flow occurs at high Reynolds numbers
and is dominated by inertial forces, which tend to produce chaotic eddies, vortices and other flow
instabilities.

55

Definition
Reynolds number can be defined for a number of different situations where a fluid is in relative
motion to a surface. These definitions generally include the fluid properties of density and
viscosity, plus a velocity and a characteristic length or characteristic dimension. This dimension
is a matter of convention for example a radius or diameter are equally valid for spheres or
circles, but one is chosen by convention. For aircraft or ships, the length or width can be used.
For flow in a pipe or a sphere moving in a fluid the internal diameter is generally used today.
Other shapes such as rectangular pipes or non-spherical objects have an equivalent diameter
defined. For fluids of variable density such as compressible gases or fluids of variable viscosity
such as non-Newtonian fluids, special rules apply. The velocity may also be a matter of
convention in some circumstances, notably stirred vessels. With these conventions, the Reynolds
number is defined as

where:

is the mean velocity of the object relative to the fluid (SI units: m/s)
is a characteristic linear dimension, (travelled length of the fluid; hydraulic diameter when
dealing with river systems) (m)
is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pas or Ns/m or kg/(ms))
is the kinematic viscosity (
is the density of the fluid (kg/m).

) (m/s)

Note that multiplying the Reynolds number by

yields
, which is the ratio of the inertial
forces to the viscous forces. It could also be considered the ratio of the total momentum transfer
to the molecular momentum transfer.
Flow in pipe

For flow in a pipe or tube, the Reynolds number is generally defined as:

where:

is the hydraulic diameter of the pipe; its characteristic travelled length,

3

is the volumetric flow rate (m /s).

is the pipe cross-sectional area (m).
is the mean velocity of the fluid (SI units: m/s).
56

, (m).

is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pas or Ns/m or kg/(ms)).

is the kinematic viscosity (

is the density of the fluid (kg/m).

(m/s).

For shapes such as squares, rectangular or annular ducts where the height and width are
comparable, the characteristical dimension for internal flow situations is taken to be the
hydraulic diameter,
, defined as:

where A is the cross-sectional area and P is the wetted perimeter. The wetted perimeter for a
channel is the total perimeter of all channel walls that are in contact with the flow. This means
the length of the channel exposed to air is not included in the wetted perimeter.
For a circular pipe, the hydraulic diameter is exactly equal to the inside pipe diameter, as can be
shown mathematically.
For an annular duct, such as the outer channel in a tube-in-tube heat exchanger, the hydraulic
diameter can be shown algebraically to reduce to

where
is the inside diameter of the outside pipe, and
is the outside diameter of the inside pipe.

For calculations involving flow in non-circular ducts, the hydraulic diameter can be substituted
for the diameter of a circular duct, with reasonable accuracy.
Flow in a wide duct

For a fluid moving between two plane parallel surfaceswhere the width is much greater than
the space between the platesthen the characteristic dimension is twice the distance between the
plates.
Flow in an open channel

For flow of liquid with a free surface, the hydraulic radius must be determined. This is the crosssectional area of the channel divided by the wetted perimeter. For a semi-circular channel, it is
half the radius. For a rectangular channel, the hydraulic radius is the cross-sectional area divided
by the wetted perimeter. Some texts then use a characteristic dimension that is four times the
hydraulic radius, chosen because it gives the same value of Re for the onset of turbulence as in
57

pipe flow, while others use the hydraulic radius as the characteristic length-scale with
consequently different values of Re for transition and turbulent flow.
Flow around airfoils

Reynolds numbers are used in airfoil design to (among other things) manage "Scale Effect" when
computing/comparing characteristics (a tiny wing, scaled to be huge, will perform differently).
Fluid dynamicists define the chord Reynolds number, R, like this: R = Vc / v where V is the
flight speed, c is the chord, and v is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid in which the airfoil
operates, which is 1.460x105 m2/s for the atmosphere at sea level.
Object in a fluid

Qualitative behaviors of fluid flow over a cylinder depends to a large extent on Reynolds number; similar
flow patterns often appear when the shape and Reynolds number is matched, although other
parameters like surface roughness have a big effect

The Reynolds number for an object in a fluid, called the particle Reynolds number and often
denoted Rep, is important when considering the nature of the surrounding flow, whether or not
vortex shedding will occur, and its fall velocity.

58

In viscous fluids

Creeping flow past a sphere: streamlines, drag force Fd and force by gravity Fg.

Where the viscosity is naturally high, such as polymer solutions and polymer melts, flow is
normally laminar. The Reynolds number is very small and Stokes' Law can be used to measure
the viscosity of the fluid. Spheres are allowed to fall through the fluid and they reach the terminal
velocity quickly, from which the viscosity can be determined.
The laminar flow of polymer solutions is exploited by animals such as fish and dolphins, who
exude viscous solutions from their skin to aid flow over their bodies while swimming. It has
been used in yacht racing by owners who want to gain a speed advantage by pumping a polymer
solution such as low molecular weight polyoxyethylene in water, over the wetted surface of the
hull.
It is, however, a problem for mixing of polymers, because turbulence is needed to distribute fine
filler (for example) through the material. Inventions such as the "cavity transfer mixer" have
been developed to produce multiple folds into a moving melt so as to improve mixing efficiency.
The device can be fitted onto extruders to aid mixing.
Sphere in a fluid

For a sphere in a fluid, the characteristic length-scale is the diameter of the sphere and the
characteristic velocity is that of the sphere relative to the fluid some distance away from the
sphere, such that the motion of the sphere does not disturb that reference parcel of fluid. The
density and viscosity are those belonging to the fluid. Note that purely laminar flow only exists
up to Re = 0.1 under this definition.
Under the condition of low Re, the relationship between force and speed of motion is given by
Stokes' law.
59

Oblong object in a fluid

The equation for an oblong object is identical to that of a sphere, with the object being
approximated as an ellipsoid and the axis of length being chosen as the characteristic length
scale. Such considerations are important in natural streams, for example, where there are few
perfectly spherical grains. For grains in which measurement of each axis is impractical, sieve
diameters are used instead as the characteristic particle length-scale. Both approximations alter
the values of the critical Reynolds number.
Fall velocity

The particle Reynolds number is important in determining the fall velocity of a particle. When
the particle Reynolds number indicates laminar flow, Stokes' law can be used to calculate its fall
velocity. When the particle Reynolds number indicates turbulent flow, a turbulent drag law must
be constructed to model the appropriate settling velocity.
Packed bed

For fluid flow through a bed of approximately spherical particles of diameter D in contact, if the
"voidage" is and the "superficial velocity" is V, the Reynolds number can be defined as:

Laminar conditions apply up to Re = 10, fully turbulent from 2000.

Stirred vessel

In a cylindrical vessel stirred by a central rotating paddle, turbine or propeller, the characteristic
dimension is the diameter of the agitator
. The velocity is
where
is the rotational
speed. Then the Reynolds number is:

The system is fully turbulent for values of Re above 10 000.

Transition and turbulent flow

In boundary layer flow over a flat plate, experiments confirm that, after a certain length of flow,
a laminar boundary layer will become unstable and turbulent. This instability occurs across
different scales and with different fluids, usually when
, where
is the
distance from the leading edge of the flat plate, and the flow velocity is the freestream velocity of
the fluid outside the boundary layer.
60

For flow in a pipe of diameter

, experimental observations show that for "fully developed"
flow, laminar flow occurs when
and turbulent flow occurs when
. In the interval between 2300 and 4000, laminar and turbulent flows are possible and are called
"transition" flows, depending on other factors, such as pipe roughness and flow uniformity. This
result is generalized to non-circular channels using the hydraulic diameter, allowing a transition
Reynolds number to be calculated for other shapes of channel.
These transition Reynolds numbers are also called critical Reynolds numbers, and were studied
by Osborne Reynolds around 1895.

Pipe friction

The Moody diagram, which describes the DarcyWeisbach friction factor f as a function of the Reynolds
number and relative pipe roughness.

Pressure drops seen for fully developed flow of fluids through pipes can be predicted using the
Moody diagram which plots the DarcyWeisbach friction factor against Reynolds number
and relative roughness
. The diagram clearly shows the laminar, transition, and turbulent
flow regimes as Reynolds number increases. The nature of pipe flow is strongly dependent on
whether the flow is laminar or turbulent

Similarity of flows
In order for two flows to be similar they must have the same geometry, and have equal Reynolds
numbers and Euler numbers. When comparing fluid behavior at corresponding points in a model
and a full-scale flow, the following holds:

quantities marked with 'm' concern the flow around the model and the others the actual flow.
This allows engineers to perform experiments with reduced models in water channels or wind
tunnels, and correlate the data to the actual flows, saving on costs during experimentation and on
lab time. Note that true dynamic similitude may require matching other dimensionless numbers
61

as well, such as the Mach number used in compressible flows, or the Froude number that governs
open-channel flows. Some flows involve more dimensionless parameters than can be practically
satisfied with the available apparatus and fluids, so one is forced to decide which parameters are
most important. For experimental flow modeling to be useful, it requires a fair amount of
experience and judgment of the engineer.

Smallest scales of turbulent motion

In a turbulent flow, there is a range of scales of the time-varying fluid motion. The size of the
largest scales of fluid motion (sometimes called eddies) are set by the overall geometry of the
flow. For instance, in an industrial smoke stack, the largest scales of fluid motion are as big as
the diameter of the stack itself. The size of the smallest scales is set by the Reynolds number. As
the Reynolds number increases, smaller and smaller scales of the flow are visible. In a smoke
stack, the smoke may appear to have many very small velocity perturbations or eddies, in
addition to large bulky eddies. In this sense, the Reynolds number is an indicator of the range of
scales in the flow. The higher the Reynolds number, the greater the range of scales. The largest
eddies will always be the same size; the smallest eddies are determined by the Reynolds number.
What is the explanation for this phenomenon? A large Reynolds number indicates that viscous
forces are not important at large scales of the flow. With a strong predominance of inertial forces
over viscous forces, the largest scales of fluid motion are undampedthere is not enough
viscosity to dissipate their motions. The kinetic energy must "cascade" from these large scales to
progressively smaller scales until a level is reached for which the scale is small enough for
viscosity to become important (that is, viscous forces become of the order of inertial ones). It is
at these small scales where the dissipation of energy by viscous action finally takes place. The
Reynolds number indicates at what scale this viscous dissipation occurs.

In physiology
Poiseuille's law on blood circulation in the body is dependent on laminar flow. In turbulent flow
the flow rate is proportional to the square root of the pressure gradient, as opposed to its direct
proportionality to pressure gradient in laminar flow.
Using the definition of the Reynolds number we can see that a large diameter with rapid flow,
where the density of the blood is high, tends towards turbulence. Rapid changes in vessel
diameter may lead to turbulent flow, for instance when a narrower vessel widens to a larger one.
Furthermore, a bulge of atheroma may be the cause of turbulent flow, where audible turbulence
may be detected with a stethoscope.

Derivation
The Reynolds number can be obtained when one uses the nondimensional form of the
incompressible Navier-Stokes equations:

62

Each term in the above equation has the units of a "body force" (force per unit volume) or,
equivalently, an acceleration times a density. Each term is thus dependent on the exact
measurements of a flow. When one renders the equation nondimensional, that is when we
multiply it by a factor with inverse units of the base equation, we obtain a form which does not
depend directly on the physical sizes. One possible way to obtain a nondimensional equation is
to multiply the whole equation by the following factor:

where:

is the mean velocity, or , relative to the fluid (m/s).

is the characteristic length, , (m).
is the fluid density (kg/m).

If we now set:

we can rewrite the Navier-Stokes equation without dimensions:

where the term

Finally, dropping the primes for ease of reading:

This is why mathematically all flows with the same Reynolds number are comparable. Notice
also, in the above equation, as
the viscous terms vanish. Thus, high Reynolds number
flows are approximately inviscid in the free-stream.

See also
63

Reynolds transport theorem

Drag coefficient
Deposition (geology)

Notes
1. The definition of the Reynolds number is not to be confused with the Reynolds equation or
lubrication equation.
2. Full development of the flow occurs as the flow enters the pipe, the boundary layer thickens and
then stabilizes after several diameters distance into the pipe.

Magnetic Reynolds number

The Magnetic Reynolds number is a dimensionless group that occurs in magnetohydrodynamics. It
gives an estimate of the effects of magnetic advection to magnetic diffusion, and is typically defined by:

where

is a typical velocity scale of the flow

is a typical length scale of the flow
is the magnetic diffusivity

General Characteristics for Large and Small

For
, advection is relatively unimportant, and so the magnetic field will tend to relax
towards a purely diffusive state, determined by the boundary conditions rather than the flow.
For
, diffusion is relatively unimportant on the length scale . Flux lines of the
magnetic field are then advected with the fluid flow, until such time as gradients are concentrated
into regions of short enough length scale that diffusion can balance advection.

Relationship to the Reynolds Number and Pclet Number

The Magnetic Reynolds number has a similar form to both the Pclet number and the Reynolds
number. All three can be regarded as giving the ratio of advective to diffusive effects for a
particular physical field, and have a similar form of a velocity times a length divided by a
64

diffusivity. The magnetic Reynolds number is related to the magnetic field in an MHD flow,
while the Reynolds number is related to the fluid velocity itself, and the Pclet number a related
to heat. The dimensionless groups arise in the non-dimensionalization of the respective
governing equations, the induction equation, the momentum equation, and the heat equation.

See also

Lundquist number
Magnetohydrodynamics
Reynolds number
Pclet number

Richardson number
The Richardson number is named after Lewis Fry Richardson (1881 1953). It is the
dimensionless number that expresses the ratio of potential to kinetic energy

where g is the acceleration due to gravity, h a representative vertical lengthscale, and u a

representative speed.
When considering flows in which density differences are small (the Boussinesq approximation),
it is common to use the reduced gravity g' and the relevant parameter is the densimetric
Richardson number

which is used frequently when considering atmospheric or oceanic flows.

If the Richardson number is much less than unity, buoyancy is unimportant in the flow. If it is
much greater than unity, buoyancy is dominant (in the sense that there is insufficient kinetic
energy to homogenize the fluids).
If the Richardson number is of order unity, then the flow is likely to be buoyancy-driven: the
energy of the flow derives from the potential energy in the system originally.

65

Aviation
In aviation, the Richardson number is used as a rough measure of expected air turbulence. A
lower value indicates a higher degree of turbulence. Values in the range 10 to 0.1 are typical,
with values below unity indicating significant turbulence.

Thermal convection
In thermal convection problems, Richardson number represents the importance of natural
convection relative to the forced convection. The Richardson number in this context is defined as

where g is the gravitational acceleration, is the thermal expansion coefficient,

is the hot
wall temperature,
is the reference temperature, is the characteristic length, and is the
characteristic velocity.
The Richardson number can also be expressed by using a combination of the Grashof number
and Reynolds number,

Typically, the natural convection is negligible when

, forced convection is negligible
when
, and neither is negligible when
. It may be noted that usually
the forced convection is large relative to natural convection except in the case of extremely low
forced flow velocities. In the design of water filled thermal energy storage tanks, the Richardson
number can be useful.

Oceanography
In oceanography, the Richardson number has a more general form which takes stratification into
account. It is a measure of relative importance of mechanical and density effects in the water
column, as described by the TaylorGoldstein equation, used to model KelvinHelmholtz
instability which is driven by sheared flows.

where N is the BruntVisl frequency.

The Richardson number defined above is always considered positive. A negative value of N (i.e.
complex N) indicates unstable density gradients with active convective overturning. Under such
circumstances the magnitude of negative Ri is not generally of interest. It can be shown that Ri <
66

1/4 is a necessary condition for velocity shear to overcome the tendency of a stratified fluid to
remain stratified, and some mixing (turbulence) will generally occur. When Ri is large, turbulent
mixing across the stratification is generally suppressed.

Notes
1. Modellers will be more familiar with the reciprocal of the square root of the Richardson number,
known as the Froude number.
2. Robert Huhn Beitrag zur thermodynamischen Analyse und Bewertung von
Wasserwrmespeichern in Energieumwandlungsketten, ISBN 978-3-940046-32-1, Andreas
Oberhammer Europas grter Fernwrmespeicher in Kombination mit dem optimalen
Ladebetrieb eines Gas- und Dampfturbinenkraftwerkes (Vortrag 2007)
3. A good reference on this subject is Turner, J. S. (1973). Buoyancy Effects in Fluids. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-08623-X.

Roshko number
In fluid mechanics, the Roshko number is a dimensionless number describing oscillating flow
mechanisms. It is named after the American Professor of Aeronautics Anatol Roshko. It is
defined as

where Ro is the dimensionless Roshko number, St is the dimensionless Strouhal number, Re is

the Reynolds number, f is the frequency of vortex shedding, L is the characteristic length (for
example hydraulic diameter) and is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid.

67

Rossby number
The Rossby number, named for Carl-Gustav Arvid Rossby, is a dimensionless number used in
describing fluid flow. The Rossby number is the ratio of inertial to Coriolis force, terms
and
in the NavierStokes equations, respectively. It is
commonly used in geophysical phenomena in the oceans and atmosphere, where it characterizes
the importance of Coriolis accelerations arising from planetary rotation. It is also known as the
Kibel number.
The Rossby number (Ro and not

) is defined as:

where U and L are, respectively, characteristic velocity and length scales of the phenomenon and
f = 2 sin is the Coriolis frequency, where is the angular frequency of planetary rotation
and the latitude.
A small Rossby number signifies a system which is strongly affected by Coriolis forces, and a
large Rossby number signifies a system in which inertial and centrifugal forces dominate. For
example, in tornadoes, the Rossby number is large ( 103), in low-pressure systems it is low (
0.1 1) and in oceanic systems it is of the order of unity, but depending on the phenomena can
range over several orders of magnitude ( 102 102). As a result, in tornadoes the Coriolis force
is negligible, and balance is between pressure and centrifugal forces (called cyclostrophic
balance). Cyclostrophic balance also commonly occurs in the inner core of a tropical cyclone. In
low-pressure systems, centrifugal force is negligible and balance is between Coriolis and
pressure forces (called geostrophic balance). In the oceans all three forces are comparable
(called cyclogeostrophic balance). For a figure showing spatial and temporal scales of motions in
the atmosphere and oceans, see Kantha and Clayson.
When the Rossby number is large (either because f is small, such as in the tropics and at lower
latitudes; or because L is small, that is, for small-scale motions such as flow in a bathtub; or for
large speeds), the effects of planetary rotation are unimportant and can be neglected. When the
Rossby number is small, then the effects of planetary rotation are large and the net acceleration is
comparably small allowing the use of the geostrophic approximation.

See also

Coriolis effect
Centrifugal force

68

Rouse number
The Rouse number is a non-dimensional number in fluid dynamics which is used to define a
concentration profile of suspended sediment and which also determines how sediment will be
transported in a flowing fluid. It is a ratio between the sediment fall velocity
and the upwards
velocity on the grain as a product of the von Krmn constant and the shear velocity
.

Occasionally the factor is included before the von Krmn constant in the equation, which is a
constant which correlates eddy viscosity to eddy diffusivity. This is generally taken to be equal
to 1, and therefore is ignored in actual calculation. However, it should not be ignored when
considering the full equation.

It is named after the American fluid dynamicist Hunter Rouse. It is a characteristic scale
parameter in the Rouse Profile of suspended sediment concentration with depth in a flowing
fluid. The concentration of suspended sediment with depth goes as the power of the negative
Rouse number. It also is used to determine how the particles will move in the fluid. The required
Rouse numbers for transport as bed load, suspended load, and wash load, are given below.
Mode of Transport
Rouse Number
Bed load
>2.5
Suspended load: 50% Suspended >1.2, <2.5
Suspended load: 100% Suspended >0.8, <1.2
Wash load
<0.8

See also

Sediment transport
Sediment
Dimensionless quantity

69

Ruark number
The Ruark number (RU) is a dimensionless number seen in fluid mechanics.
It is defined as:

where:

density
velocity
pressure

Schmidt number
Schmidt number is a dimensionless number defined as the ratio of momentum diffusivity
(viscosity) and mass diffusivity, and is used to characterize fluid flows in which there are
simultaneous momentum and mass diffusion convection processes. It was named after the
German engineer Ernst Heinrich Wilhelm Schmidt (1892-1975).
Schmidt number is the ratio of the shear component for diffusivity viscosity/density to the
diffusivity for mass transfer D. It physically relates the relative thickness of the hydrodynamic
layer and mass-transfer boundary layer.
It is defined as:

where:

is the kinematic viscosity or ( / ) in units of (m2/s)

is the mass diffusivity (m2/s).
is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pas or Ns/m or kg/ms)
is the density of the fluid (kg/m).

The heat transfer analog of the Schmidt number is the Prandtl number.
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Turbulent Schmidt Number

The turbulent Schmidt number is commonly used in turbulence research and is defined as:

where:

is the eddy viscosity in units of (m2/s)

is the eddy diffusivity (m2/s).

The turbulent Schmidt number describes the ratio between the rates of turbulent transport of
momentum and the turbulent transport of mass (or any passive scalar). It is related to the
turbulent Prandtl number which is concerned with turbulent heat transfer rather than turbulent
mass transfer.

Stirling engines
For Stirling engines, the Schmidt number represents dimensionless specific power. Gustav
Schmidt of the German Polytechnic Institute of Prague published an analysis in 1871 for the
now-famous closed-form solution for an idealized isothermal Stirling engine model.

where,

is the Schmidt number

is the heat transferred into the working fluid
is the mean pressure of the working fluid
is the volume swept by the piston.

Sherwood number
The Sherwood number,
(also called the mass transfer Nusselt number) is a dimensionless
number used in mass-transfer operation. It represents the ratio of convective to diffusive mass
transport, and is named in honor of Thomas Kilgore Sherwood.
It is defined as follows

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where

is a characteristic length (m)

is mass diffusivity (m2.s1)
is the mass transfer coefficient (m.s1)

Using dimensional analysis, it can also be further defined as a function of the Reynolds and
Schmidt numbers:

For example, for a single sphere it can be expressed as:

where

is the Sherwood number due only to natural convection and not forced convection.

A more specific correlation, the Froessling equation:

This form is particularly valuable to chemical engineers in situations where the Reynolds number
and Schmidt number are readily available. Since Re and Sc are both dimensionless numbers, the
Sherwood number is also dimensionless.
These correlations are the mass transfer analogs to heat transfer correlations of the Nusselt
number in terms of the Reynolds number and Prandtl number. For a correlation for a given
geometry (e.g. spheres, plates, cylinders, etc.), a heat transfer correlation (often more readily
available from literature and experimental work, and easier to determine) for the Nusselt number
(Nu) in terms of the Reynolds number (Re) and the Prandtl number (Pr) can be used as a mass
transfer correlation by replacing the Prandtl number with the analogous dimensionless number
for mass transfer, the Schmidt number, and replacing the Nusselt number with the analogous
dimensionless number for mass transfer, the Sherwood number.
As an example, a heat transfer correlation for spheres is given by the Ranz-Marshall Correlation:

This correlation can be made into a mass transfer correlation using the above procedure, which
yields:

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This is a very concrete way of demonstrating the analogies between different forms of transport
phenomena.

See also

Churchill-Bernstein Equation

Shields parameter
The Shields parameter, also called the Shields criterion or Shields number, is a
nondimensional number used to calculate the initiation of motion of sediment in a fluid flow. It
is a nondimensionalization of a shear stress, and is typically denoted or . It is given by:

where:
is a dimensional shear stress;
is the density of the sediment;
is the density of the fluid;
is acceleration due to gravity;
is a characteristic particle diameter of the sediment.

Physical meaning
By multiplying the top and bottom of the Shields parameter by D2, you can see that it is
proportional to the ratio of fluid force on the particle to the weight of the particle.

Stanton number
The Stanton number, St, is a dimensionless number that measures the ratio of heat transferred
into a fluid to the thermal capacity of fluid. It is used to characterize heat transfer in forced
convection flows.
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where

h = convection heat transfer coefficient

= density of the fluid
cp = specific heat of the fluid
V = velocity of the fluid

It can also be represented in terms of the fluid's Nusselt, Reynolds, and Prandtl numbers:

where

Nu is the Nusselt number

Re is the Reynolds number
Pr is the Prandtl number

The Stanton number arises in the consideration of the geometric similarity of the momentum
boundary layer and the thermal boundary layer, where it can be used to express a relationship
between the shear force at the wall (due to viscous drag) and the total heat transfer at the wall
(due to thermal diffusivity).
The Stanton number is named after Thomas Edward Stanton (18651931).

Stokes number
The Stokes number, named after George Gabriel Stokes, is a dimensionless number
corresponding to the behavior of particles suspended in a fluid flow. Stokes number is defined as
the ratio of the characteristic time of a particle (or droplet) to a characteristic time of the flow or
of an obstacle, or

where is the
relaxation time of the particle (the time constant in the exponential decay
of the particle velocity due to drag),
is the fluid velocity of the flow well away from the
obstacle and
is the characteristic dimension of the obstacle (typically its diameter). Particles
with low Stokes number follow fluid streamlines (perfect advection) whereas for large Stokes
number, the particle's inertia dominates so that the particle will continue along its initial
trajectory.
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In case of Stokes flow, which is when the particle (or droplet) Reynolds number is low enough
that the particle drag coefficient is inversely proportional to the Reynolds number itself the
characteristic time of the particle can be defined as

Drag coefficient Cd for a sphere as a function of Reynolds number Re, as obtained from
laboratory experiments. The solid line is for a sphere with a smooth surface, while the dashed
line is for the case of a rough surface. The numbers along the line indicate several flow regimes
and associated changes in the drag coefficient:
2: attached flow (Stokes flow) and steady separated flow,
3: separated unsteady flow, having a laminar flow boundary layer upstream of the separation,
and producing a vortex street,
4: separated unsteady flow with a laminar boundary layer at the upstream side, before flow
separation, with downstream of the sphere a chaotic turbulent wake,
5: post-critical separated flow, with a turbulent boundary layer.

where

is the particle density,

is the particle diameter and

is the gas dynamic viscosity.

In experimental fluid dynamics, the Stokes number is a measure of flow tracer fidelity in particle
image velocimetry (PIV) experiments where very small particles are entrained in turbulent flows
and optically observed to determine the speed and direction of fluid movement (also known as
the velocity field of the fluid). For acceptable tracing accuracy, the particle response time should
be faster than the smallest time scale of the flow. Smaller Stokes numbers represent better tracing
accuracy; for
, particles will detach from a flow especially where the flow decelerates
abruptly. For
, particles follow fluid streamlines closely. If
, tracing
accuracy errors are below 1%.

Application to anisokinetic sampling of particles

For example, the selective capture of particles by an aligned, thin-walled circular nozzle is given
by Belyaev and Levin as:

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where is particle concentration, is speed, and the subscript 0 indicates conditions far
upstream of the nozzle. The characteristic distance is the diameter of the nozzle. Here the Stokes
number is calculated,

where is the particle's settling velocity,

acceleration of gravity.

is the sampling tubes inner diameter, and

is the

Strouhal number
In dimensional analysis, the Strouhal number is a dimensionless number describing oscillating
flow mechanisms. The parameter is named after Vincenc Strouhal, a Czech physicist who
experimented in 1878 with wires experiencing vortex shedding and singing in the wind. The
Strouhal number is an integral part of the fundamentals of fluid mechanics.
The Strouhal number is often given as

where
is the dimensionless Strouhal number, is the frequency of vortex shedding, is the
characteristic length (for example hydraulic diameter) and is the velocity of the fluid. In
certain cases like heaving (plunging) flight, this characteristic length is the amplitude of
oscillation. This selection of characteristic length can be used to present a distinction between
Strouhal number and Reduced Frequency.

where

is the reduced frequency and

is amplitude of the heaving oscillation.

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Strouhal number as a function of the Reynolds number for a long cylinder

For large Strouhal numbers (order of 1), viscosity dominates fluid flow, resulting in a collective
oscillating movement of the fluid "plug". For low Strouhal numbers (order of 104 and below),
the high-speed, quasi steady state portion of the movement dominates the oscillation. Oscillation
at intermediate Strouhal numbers is characterized by the buildup and rapidly subsequent
shedding of vortices.
For spheres in uniform flow in the Reynolds number range of 800 < Re < 200,000 there co-exist
two values of the Strouhal number. The lower frequency is attributed to the large-scale instability
of the wake and is independent of the Reynolds number Re and is approximately equal to 0.2.
The higher frequency Strouhal number is caused by small-scale instabilities from the separation
of the shear layer.

Applications
In metrology, specifically axial-flow turbine meters, the Strouhal number is used in
combination with the Roshko number to give a correlation between flow rate and frequency. The
advantage of this method over the freq/viscosity versus K-factor method is that it takes into
account temperature effects on the meter.

f = meter frequency, U = flow rate, C = linear coefficient of expansion for the meter housing
material
This relationship leaves Strouhal dimensionless, although a dimensionless approximation is often
used for C3, resulting in units of pulses/volume (same as K-factor).
In animal flight or swimming, propulsive efficiency is high over a narrow range of Strouhal
constants, generally peaking in the 0.2 < St < 0.4 range. This range is used in the swimming of
dolphins, sharks, and bony fish, and in the cruising flight of birds, bats and insects. However, in
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other forms of flight other values are found. Intuitively the ratio measures the steepness of the
strokes, viewed from the side (e.g., assuming movement through a stationary fluid) f is the
stroke frequency, L is the amplitude, so the numerator fL is half the vertical speed of the wing
tip, while the denominator V is the horizontal speed. Thus the graph of the wing tip forms an
approximate sinusoid with aspect (maximum slope) twice the Strouhal constant.

See also

Froude number
Mach Number
Rossby number
Weber Number
Aeroelastic Flutter

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Stuart number
The Stuart number (N, also known as magnetic interaction parameter) is a dimensionless
number of fluids, i.e. gases or liquids.
It is defined as the ratio of electromagnetic to inertial forces, which gives an estimate of the
relative importance of a magnetic field on a flow. The Stuart number is relevant for flows of
conducting fluids, e.g. in fusion reactors, steel casters or plasmas.

Definition

Hartmann number
Reynolds number
magnetic flux density
characteristic length
electric conductivity
dynamic viscosity, sometimes denoted as

Laplace number
The Laplace number (La), also known as the Suratman number (Su), is a dimensionless
number used in the characterization of free surface fluid dynamics. It represents a ratio of surface
tension to the momentum-transport (especially dissipation) inside a fluid.
It is defined as follows:

where:

= surface tension
= density
L = length
= liquid viscosity

Laplace number is related to Reynolds number (Re) and Weber number (We) in the following
way:
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See also

Ohnesorge number - There is an inverse relationship,

Laplace number and the Ohnesorge number.

, between the

Taylor number
In fluid dynamics, the Taylor number is a dimensionless quantity that characterizes the
importance of centrifugal "forces" or so-called inertial forces due to rotation of a fluid about an
axis, relative to viscous forces.
In 1923 Geoffrey Ingram Taylor introduced this quantity in his article on the stability of flow.
The typical context of the Taylor number is in characterization of the Couette flow between
rotating colinear cylinders or rotating concentric spheres. In the case of a system which is not
rotating uniformly, such as the case of cylindrical Couette flow, where the outer cylinder is
stationary and the inner cylinder is rotating, inertial forces will often tend to destabilize a system,
whereas viscous forces tend to stabilize a system and damp out perturbations and turbulence.
On the other hand, in other cases the effect of rotation can be stabilizing. For example, in the
case of cylindrical Couette flow with positive Rayleigh discriminant, there are no axisymmetric
instabilities. Another example is a bucket of water that is rotating uniformly (i.e. undergoing
solid body rotation). Here the fluid is subject to the Taylor-Proudman theorem which says that
small motions will tend to produce purely two-dimensional perturbations to the overall rotational
flow. However, in this case the effects of rotation and viscosity are usually characterized by the
Ekman number and the Rossby number rather than by the Taylor number.
There are various definitions of the Taylor number which are not all equivalent, but most
commonly it is given by

where is a characteristic angular velocity, is a characteristic linear dimension perpendicular

to the rotation axis, and is the kinematic viscosity.
In the case of inertial instability such as TaylorCouette flow, the Taylor number is
mathematically analogous to the Grashof number which characterizes the strength of buoyant
forces relative to viscous forces in convection. When the former exceeds the latter by a critical
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ratio, convective instability sets in. Likewise, in various systems and geometries, when the
Taylor number exceeds a critical value, inertial instabilities set in, sometimes known as Taylor
instabilities, which may lead to Taylor vortices or cells.
A TaylorCouette flow describes the fluid behavior between 2 concentric cylinders in rotation. A
textbook definition of the Taylor number is

where R1 is the external radius of the internal cylinder, and R2 is the internal radius of the
external cylinder.
The critical Ta is about 1700.

Ursell number
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Wave characteristics.
In fluid dynamics, the Ursell number indicates the nonlinearity of long surface gravity waves on
a fluid layer. This dimensionless parameter is named after Fritz Ursell, who discussed its
significance in 1953.
The Ursell number is derived from the Stokes wave expansion, a perturbation series for
nonlinear periodic waves, in the long-wave limit of shallow water when the wavelength is
much larger than the water depth. Then the Ursell number U is defined as:

which is, apart from a constant 3 / (32 2), the ratio of the amplitudes of the second-order to the
first-order term in the free surface elevation. The used parameters are:

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H : the wave height, i.e. the difference between the elevations of the wave crest and
trough,
h : the mean water depth, and
: the wavelength, which has to be large compared to the depth, h.

So the Ursell parameter U is the relative wave height H / h times the relative wavelength / h
squared.
For long waves ( h) with small Ursell number, U 32 2 / 3 100, linear wave theory is
applicable. Otherwise (and most often) a non-linear theory for fairly long waves ( > 7 h) like
the Kortewegde Vries equation or Boussinesq equations has to be used. The parameter, with
different normalisation, was already introduced by George Gabriel Stokes in his historical paper
on surface gravity waves of 1847.

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Weber number
The Weber number is a dimensionless number in fluid mechanics that is often useful in
analysing fluid flows where there is an interface between two different fluids, especially for
multiphase flows with strongly curved surfaces. It can be thought of as a measure of the relative
importance of the fluid's inertia compared to its surface tension. The quantity is useful in
analyzing thin film flows and the formation of droplets and bubbles.
It is named after Moritz Weber (18711951) and may be written as:

where

is the density of the fluid (kg/m3).

is its velocity (m/s).
is its characteristic length, typically the droplet diameter (m).
is the surface tension (N/m).

The modified Weber number,

equals the ratio of the kinetic energy on impact to the surface energy,

,
where

and
.

Applications
One application of the Weber number is for the study of heat pipes. When the momentum flux in
the vapor core of the heat pipe is high, there is a possibility that the shear stress exerted on the
liquid in the wick can be large enough to entrain droplets into the vapor flow. The Weber number
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is the dimensionless parameter that determines the onset of this phenomenon called the
entrainment limit (Weber number greater than or equal to 1). In this case the Weber number is
defined as the ratio of the momentum in the vapor layer divided by the surface tension force
restraining the liquid, where the characteristic length is the surface pore size.

Weissenberg number
The Weissenberg number is a dimensionless number used in the study of viscoelastic flows. It
is named after Karl Weissenberg. The dimensionless number is the ratio of the relaxation time of
the fluid and a specific process time. For instance, in simple steady shear, the Weissenberg
number, often abbreviated as Wi or We, is defined as the shear rate times the relaxation time

Since this number is obtained from scaling the evolution of the stress, it contains choices for the
shear or elongation rate, and the length-scale. Therefore the exact definition of all non
dimensional numbers should be given as well as the number itself.
While Wi is similar to the Deborah number and is often confused with it in technical literature,
they have different physical interpretations. The Weissenberg number indicates the degree of
anisotropy or orientation generated by the deformation, and is appropriate to describe flows with
a constant stretch history, such as simple shear. In contrast, the Deborah number should be used
to describe flows with a non-constant stretch history, and physically represents the rate at which
elastic energy is stored or released.

Womersley number
The Womersley number is a dimensionless number in biofluid mechanics. It is a dimensionless
expression of the pulsatile flow frequency in relation to viscous effects. It is named after John R.
Womersley (19071958) for his work with bloodflow in arteries. The Womersley number is
important in keeping dynamic similarity when scaling an experiment. An example of this is
scaling up the vascular system for experimental study. The Womersley number is also important
in determining the thickness of the boundary layer to see if entrance effects can be ignored.

Derivation
The Womersley number, usually denoted

, is defined by the relation

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where is an appropriate length scale (for example the radius of a pipe), is the angular
frequency of the oscillations, and , , are the kinematic viscosity, density, and dynamic
viscosity of the fluid, respectively. The Womersley number is normally written in the powerless
form

It can also be written in terms of the dimensionless Reynolds number (Re) and Strouhal number
(Sr):

The Womersley number arises in the solution of the linearized Navier Stokes equations for
oscillatory flow (presumed to be laminar and incompressible) in a tube. It expresses the ratio of
the transient or oscillatory inertia force to the shear force. When is small (1 or less), it means
the frequency of pulsations is sufficiently low that a parabolic velocity profile has time to
develop during each cycle, and the flow will be very nearly in phase with the pressure gradient,
and will be given to a good approximation by Poiseuille's law, using the instantaneous pressure
gradient. When is large (10 or more), it means the frequency of pulsations is sufficiently large
that the velocity profile is relatively flat or plug-like, and the mean flow lags the pressure
gradient by about 90 degrees. Along with the Reynolds number, the Womersley number governs
dynamic similarity.
The boundary layer thickness that is associated with the transient acceleration is related to the
Womersley number. It is equal to inverse of the Womersley number. The Womersley number is
also equal to the square root of the Stokes number.

where L is a characteristic length.

Biofluid Mechanics
In a flow distribution network that progresses from a large tube to many small tubes (e.g. a blood
vessel network), the frequency, density, and dynamic viscosity are (usually) the same throughout
the network, but the tube radii change. Therefore the Womersley number is large in large vessels
and small in small vessels. As the vessel diameter decreases with each division the Womersley
number soon becomes quite small. The Womersley numbers tend to 1 at the level of the terminal
arteries. In the arterioles, capillaries, and venules the Womersley numbers are less than one. In
these regions the inertia force becomes less important and the flow is determined by the balance
of viscous stresses and the pressure gradient. This is called microcirculation.
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Some typical values for the Womersley number in the cardiovascular system for a canine at a
heart rate of 2Hz are:

Ascending Aorta -- 13.2

Descending Aorta -- 11.5
Abdominal Aorta -- 8
Femoral Artery -- 3.5
Carotid Artery -- 4.4
Arterioles --.04
Capillaries -- 0.005
Venules -- 0.035
Inferior Vena Cava -- 8.8
Main Pulmonary Artery -- 15

It has been argued that universal biological scaling laws (power-law relationships that describe
variation of quantities such as metabolic rate, lifespan, length, etc., with body mass) are a
consequence of the need for energy minimization, the fractal nature of vascular networks, and
the crossover from high to low Womersley number flow as one progresses from large to small
vessels.

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