A study of the effect of curvature on fully developed turbulent flow

Abstract

1—The solution of many important problems in aeronautics and hydraulics depends largely on the behaviour of turbulent flow along curved surfaces. In flow along plane surfaces the following method has proved to be successful. The laws of turbulent velocity distribution were investigated in straight tubes and channels of constant cross-section and the results applied to the boundary layer with variable thickness. The present work has undertaken with the idea of isolating the effect of curvature on the turbulent flow as much as possible, by using a curved channel of constant curvature and cross-section. It is hoped that the results of these experiments may be applied later to the general case of curved boundary layers.