Laminar flow vs turbulent flow (smooth vs corrugated tubes)

[kavudiego]

do you think liquid cooling systems would benefit from laminar flow?

[tommasosciotto]

@kavudiego no, because laminar flow reduces the exchange in both cases, cooling and heating.

[KevinLiddellJohnson]

What is the difference in flow rates? Seems important here.

[KevinLiddellJohnson]

@KevinLiddellJohnson There was a reply that was erased. My interest is in application of scientific method. I understand that a dramatic difference in flow velocity will illustrate how the spiral wire will introduce turbulence and betting mixing. I would be interested in seeing the same average flow velocity in both tubes. When you start changing more than one thing in an experiment or demonstration then you introduce confounds which may or may not be ultimately important.

[hrsheatexchangers]

@KevinLiddellJohnson : In fact there was no flow rate in the experiment. The bubbles were freely ascending through the glass tubes, water filled, vertically mounted, and illuminated from the bottom. The apparently different flow rates are due to the fact that in the smooth tube your attention is inadvertently fixed in the bubbles near the tube walls, which are also relatively more compared to the bubles in the inner flow, and move slower due to the laminar flow effect too.

[KevinLiddellJohnson]

No, then the different flow rates are due to the coalescing bubbles which rise at a faster rate in a given viscosity fluid, ceteris paribus. You did not intend for them to be different but they are. The faster rising bubbles induce an overall faster flow. In motor oil, for example, small average diameter bubbles take substantially longer to rise to the surface to be dealt with by anti-foam surfactants.

[fuelban]

Very well explained, makes perfect sense to me... thanks.

Thom in Scotland.

[rudedog062]

Seems to me that any turbulence in a tube would cause cavatation and wear in the tubing!

[FunkadelicSixties]

So, for a better heating i should have a turbulent flow?

[chaz706]

@FunkadelicSixties In a word yes.