"In transitional flow, friction varies with no discernible patterns," says Dr. Rory Cerbus, a postdoctoral researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST).

To study these transitional flows, Cerbus and his collaborators conducted experiments on water flowing through a 20-meter-long, 2.5-centimeter-diameter glass cylindrical pipe.

The flow of all fluids, whether liquid or gas, will have one of three states: laminar, turbulent, and transitional. This article discusses flow principles and pressure-based flow measurement. Laminar ...