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What is meant by the critical Reynolds number?

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Answer:

Critical Reynolds number is a number or the threshold or the limit at which the laminar flow changes to turbulent flow.

Step-by-step explanation:

It is basically the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces and helps to predict if the flow is laminar or turbulent.

from the experiments, for flow in a pipe of diameter D, critical Reynolds number=2300

For Laminar flow: Reynolds number is less than 2000

For transitional flow: Reynolds number is in between 2000-4000, the flow is unstable

For Turbulent flow: Reynolds number is greater than 3500

Reynolds number is different for different geometries

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