Persistent Laminar Flow at Reynolds Numbers Exceeding 100,000

Abstract

Accurate prediction of the transition from laminar flow to turbulence remains an unresolved challenge despite its importance for understanding a variety of environmental, biological, and industrial phenomena. Well over a century of concerted effort has aimed toward a quantitative, mechanistic explanation of Osborne Reynolds' seminal observation of transition to turbulence in pipe flow, typically occurring when the ratio of inertial and viscous fluid dynamic forces -- the eponymous Reynolds number -- is approximately 2000. These studies have been confounded by subsequent observations that the Reynolds number at which transition occurs can be delayed to values as high as 100,000. This record-high laminar Reynolds number has not been exceeded in any similar flow configuration for more than 70 years, however, as it required experiments to be conducted using pipe lengths of up to 18 meters housed within a bomb shelter to eliminate ambient disturbances to the flow. Here, we demonstrate a benchtop jet flow that exhibits persistent laminar flow beyond a Reynolds number of 116,000, a value limited only by the maximum flow-generating capacity of the current facility. High-speed videography of the jet shape and flow velocimetry within the jet confirm the laminar nature of the flow, even in the presence of visible ambient flow disturbances arising from non-idealities in the facility design. The measured spatial evolution of the velocity profile within the jet, approaching a "top hat" shape with increasing downstream distance, appears to promote persistence of the laminar flow. These results suggest the existence of an empirically accessible flow regime in which turbulence might be circumvented at arbitrarily high Reynolds numbers.