Intuitive explanation of Poiseuille's law -- why r 4 </msup> ? According to Pois

tuehanhyd8ml

tuehanhyd8ml

Answered question

2022-05-09

Intuitive explanation of Poiseuille's law -- why r 4 ?
According to Poiseuille's law, the effective resistance of a tube is inversely proportional to the fourth power of its radius (as given by the following equation).
R = 8 η Δ x π r 4
I can go through the derivation of the law but is there an intuitive explanation for why it is the fourth power of radius, or a thought experiment that might make it more obvious?

Answer & Explanation

Kyler Crawford

Kyler Crawford

Beginner2022-05-10Added 16 answers

No-slip condition requires that the velocity is 0 at the boundaries, thus you can see intuitively that the velocity profile has to behave in a 2 r 2 (at least as leading terms in its expansion), with a the radius of the tube.
To get the hydraulic resistance, you need the mass flux: integrating a 2 and r 2 on a section (circle) you'll get terms in a 4 : the mass flux is in pressure drop times a 4 , hence the dependence of the hydraulic resistance.
You can maybe conceptualize it as a 2 + d , where 2 comes from the quadratic profile and d is the dimension of space : in a Hele-Shaw flow you'll have a flux in h 3
Derick Richard

Derick Richard

Beginner2022-05-11Added 4 answers

Non-turbulent flow through a pipe of radius r is proportional to the cross section π r 2 times the average flow velocity. The latter is proportional to the time t it takes for the momentum in the fluid to diffuse to the wall: t ( 1 / ν ) r 2 . Here ν is the kinematic viscosity ( η / ρ). It follows that the flux (area times velocity) is proportional to r 4

Do you have a similar question?

Recalculate according to your conditions!

New Questions in Fluid Mechanics

Ask your question.
Get an expert answer.

Let our experts help you. Answer in as fast as 15 minutes.

Didn't find what you were looking for?