What is laminar flow?

Laminar flow is key to the operating principle of Alicat differential pressure instruments, enabling them to output highly accurate mass flow rates across very wide measurement and control ranges.

In this article, we briefly discuss different flow types with a focus on laminar flow.

Turbulent, laminar, and transitional flow

When flowing through a channel, a fluid can be described as either turbulent, laminar, or transitional.

Turbulent flow

Turbulent flow is the most common kind of flow. This type of flow is chaotic, and its pressure and velocity vary significantly throughout the flow channel. Turbulent flow does not exist in uniform layers, but rather mixes throughout the flow channel.

It is characterized by a pressure drop that is proportional to the square of the velocity of the flow.

Laminar flow

Laminar flow, also called streamline flow, is smooth and layered. It is more likely to occur at lower flow rates, in small flow channels, and with high viscosity fluids. Laminar flow exhibits a uniform velocity profile across a channel. The fluid flowing near the center of the channel moves with the highest velocity, and predictably decreases as it approaches the channel walls.

At laminar flow conditions, there is a linear relationship between pressure drop and flow velocity.

Transitional flow

Transitional flow exhibits characteristics of both laminar and turbulent flow. Fluid flow is laminar at the edges of the channel, but turbulent at the center. The exact proportion of turbulent to laminar flow can vary from almost entirely laminar to nearly all turbulent.

It is very difficult to accurately calculate a differential pressure reading using transitional flow, as the pressure drop is proportional to an ill-defined polynomial.

How do you know if flow is laminar?

In the late 1800s, Osbourne Reynolds came up with the Reynolds number (Re). This number can be used to predict the flow type under a certain set of conditions.

Reynolds numbers generally* fall into ranges that indicate whether flow is laminar, turbulent, or transitional.

• Laminar flow: Re < 2,000
• Transitional flow: 2000 < Re < 4,000
• Turbulent flow: Re > 4,000

*These numbers may be radically affected by surface finishes of channel walls.

Converting turbulent flow to laminar flow

To reduce the Reynolds number and obtain laminar flow, you can reduce flow velocity or flow channel dimensions. You can also flow the fluid with a lower density or higher viscosity.

The video below demonstrates how an Alicat device converts turbulent flow into laminar flow.