Osborne Reynolds
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Osborne Reynolds |
Osborne Reynolds (
23 August,
1842–
21 February,
1912) was an
British fluid dynamics engineer. He was born in
Belfast,
Ireland and died in
Watchet in
Somerset,
England. He graduated from
Cambridge University in
1867 after studying
mathematics. In
1868 he became a professor of
engineering at
Owens College in
Manchester (a predecessor of the
Victoria University of Manchester, merged with the
UMIST in
2004 to become the
University of Manchester), and was only the second to hold this role in
England. He retired in
1905.
Reynolds famously studied the conditions in which the flow of fluid in pipes transitioned from
laminar to
turbulent. From these experiments came the dimensionless
Reynolds number for dynamic similarityâ€"the ratio of
inertial forces to
viscous forces. In
1877 he was elected a fellow of the
Royal Society, and in
1888 he won the
Royal Medal.
Reynolds also proposed what is now known as
Reynolds-averaging of turbulent flows, where quantities such as
velocity are expressed as the sum of mean and fluctuating components. Such averaging allows for 'bulk' description of turbulent flow, for example using the
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations.
Reynold's contributions to fluid mechanics were not lost on ship designers ("naval architects"). The ability to make a small scale model of a ship, and extract useful predictive data with respect to a full size ship, depends directly on the experimentalist applying Reynold's turbulence principles to friction drag computations, along with a proper application of
William Froude's theories of gravity wave energy and propagation.
A
crater on
Mars is named in his honour.
The following achievemnts are attributed to, or named in honour of, Osborne Reynolds:
*
Reynolds number*
Reynolds transport theorem*
Reynolds decomposition*
Reynolds stresses*
Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations*
*
Osborne Reynolds- Scientist, Engineer, Pioneer - University of Manchester
