Recent Developments in Turbulent Flow through Pipes and Channels

Attempt has been made in this paper to deal with the development in the field of turbulent flow through pipes and channels from the ancient days to the present day progress due to Nikuradse, Prandtl, Karman, White, Colebrook, Moody, Keulegan, Powell, Vanoni, Rouse and others. A new set of formulae for fully developed rough turbulent flow derived earlier by the author on the basis of Prandtl’s equation in conjunction with Manning’s formula have been compared with a set of new rational formulae for turbulent flow in channels developed recently by Govinda Rao and Rajaratnam using the classical experimental results of Ralph W. Powell and the basic equations given by Keulegan. The effect of free surface, shape factor and sediment load on the shape of vertical velocity distribution curve and thus on the friction factor and hence on the constants in the Prandtl and Karman’s formulae has been briefly outlined.