Print Email Facebook Twitter Repeller or Attractor? Selecting the Dynamical Model for the Onset of Turbulence in Pipe Flow Title Repeller or Attractor? Selecting the Dynamical Model for the Onset of Turbulence in Pipe Flow Author Hof, B. De Lozar, A. Kuik, D.J. Westerweel, J. Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Department Process and Energy Date 2008-11-18 Abstract The collapse of turbulence, observable in shear flows at low Reynolds numbers, raises the question if turbulence is generically of a transient nature or becomes sustained at some critical point. Recent data have led to conflicting views with the majority of studies supporting the model of turbulence turning into an attracting state. Here we present lifetime measurements of turbulence in pipe flow spanning 8 orders of magnitude in time, drastically extending all previous investigations. We show that no critical point exists in this regime and that in contrast to the prevailing view the turbulent state remains transient. To our knowledge this is the first observation of superexponential transients in turbulence, confirming a conjecture derived from low-dimensional systems. To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:be76849f-b708-49d9-a6ba-b2e2a0cbff28 Publisher American Physical Society ISSN 1079-7114 Source Physical Review Letters, 101 (21), 2008 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2008 The Author(s) ; American Physical Society Files PDF Kuik_2008.pdf 411.33 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:be76849f-b708-49d9-a6ba-b2e2a0cbff28/datastream/OBJ/view