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For steady incompressible pipe flow, volume flux equals cross-sectional area times mean speed and is conserved through a junction.

The Hagen-Poiseuille equation describes steady, fully developed, laminar flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid through a straight rigid circular pipe. With pipe radius $R$, axial coordinate $z$ and constant viscosity $\mu$, force balance reduces to $\mu r^{-1}\frac{d}{dr}(r\frac{dw}{dr})=dp/dz$.

Steady pressure-driven flow through a circular pipe has the parabolic profile

Regularity at the centre and the no-slip boundary condition at $r=R$ fix the displayed profile. Integrating over the cross-section gives $Q=-\pi R^4(dp/dz)/(8\mu )=\pi R^4\Delta p/(8\mu L)$ for length $L$ and positive pressure drop $\Delta p$. The fourth power makes volume flux strongly sensitive to radius; the assumptions exclude arbitrary turbulent or developing pipe flow. ^[ref]

Put $G=\Delta p/L>0$, with flow in the positive $z$ direction, so $dp/dz=-G$. Balancing pressure forces and wall shear on a cylindrical fluid volume of radius $R$ and length $L$ givesThus the wall stress is fixed before any constitutive equation is specified.

For fully developed pipe flow, the axial Cauchy equation reduces toRegularity at the axis removes the $1/r$ integration constant, soIts magnitude rises linearly from zero at the axis to ${\tau }_R$ at the wall.

Let $t(n)$ denote traction: the force per unit area exerted across an oriented internal surface with unit normal $n$. Define ${\sigma }_{ij}$ as component $i$ of the traction on a coordinate plane whose normal is $e_j$. Balance of linear momentum on a shrinking tetrahedron makes the surface-force terms, of order area, dominate its inertia and body forces, of order volume. Resolving its oblique face into the three coordinate projected areas gives Cauchy's traction formulaOpposite faces have opposite tractions, as follows independently from a shrinking pillbox. This fixes both the index and normal conventions.

For a material volume $V(t)$, the Reynolds transport theorem says $d{\int }_{V(t)}fdV/dt={\int }_{V(t)}[f_t+\nabla \cdot (fu)]dV$. Apply it componentwise to $f=\rho u_i$ and use mass conservation. With no body force in this calculation, balance of linear momentum and the divergence theorem giveArbitrariness of the material volume yields $\boxed{\rho D{u}_i/Dt={\partial }_j{\sigma }_{ij}}$, with $D/Dt={\partial }_t+u_j{\partial }_j$.

For constant dynamic viscosity and incompressible velocity, ${\partial }_j{u}_j=0$, soThus $\boxed{\rho (u_t+u\cdot \nabla u)=-\nabla p+\mu {\nabla }^{2}u}$.

In fully developed steady pipe flow $u=w(x,y)e_z$, the convective acceleration vanishes. The transverse equations give $p_x=p_y=0$ and the axial equation gives $p_z=\mu (w_{xx}+w_{yy})$. One side depends only on $z$ and the other only on $(x,y)$, so both equal a constant. HenceIf $n$ is outward from the fluid cross-section, the wall-on-fluid axial shear per length is $\mu \oint {\partial }_{n}wds=\mu {\int }_A\Delta wdA=A{p}_z$. The fluid-on-pipe force is its negative:For forward pressure-driven flow $p_z<0$, this force points along the flow. Its value depends on cross-sectional area and pressure drop, even though the detailed velocity profile depends on the shape.

Pipe flow is fluid motion through a closed cylindrical conduit. In fully developed axisymmetric flow, the axial velocity depends only on radius and the axial pressure gradient sets a shear stress linear in radius.

In his 1883 paper, Osborne Reynolds investigated how the character of pipe flow depends jointly on velocity, pipe diameter and viscosity. His final dye apparatus drew water from a large glass tank through a horizontal glass tube with a smooth trumpet-shaped entrance. A separate reservoir supplied strongly colored water just upstream of the entrance; a valve below the tank controlled the outflow. The glass tube was immersed in the tank, so its internal dye band could be watched. Reynolds repeated the trials with different tube diameters and water temperatures. ^[ref]

The volumetric flow rate was measured independently of the appearance of the dye. Reynolds timed a one-inch fall of the tank's water level, corresponding to a calibrated discharged volume. In modern notation, if this volume is $V$ and the elapsed time is $\Delta t$, then $Q=V/\Delta t$ and $U=4V/(\pi D^2\Delta t)$. He determined the glass tubes' internal diameters by filling them with water. For a uniform bore, a known filled length $\ell$ and measured water volume $V_{\mathrm{tube}}$ determine $D=\sqrt{4V_{\mathrm{tube}}/(\pi \ell )}$; checking bore uniformity matters because the same volume would only give an average cross-section in a tapered tube. Thermometers at different tank levels checked both the temperature and its uniformity. Reynolds compared the viscosity at different temperatures using Poiseuille's results and checked his own water by separate experiments of that type. Thus the Reynolds number estimate did not come from judging the dye band or from assuming that transition occurred at a preset value. ^[ref]

A practical repetition can instead collect a known outflow volume in a measuring vessel and time its collection, or weigh the collected water and divide its mass by mass density. Measure the internal diameter, rather than the external diameter, and obtain kinematic viscosity at the measured water temperature from independently established properties or a separate viscosity measurement. Record the dye appearance and observation position alongside $Q$, $D$, temperature and the resulting Reynolds number. These are alternative measurement procedures following $Q=V/\Delta t$, not additional historical claims about Reynolds' dye apparatus.

Begin with settled water and a small dye supply, then open the outlet valve in small steps. Reynolds saw a thin straight band at sufficiently low speeds. With a tank that had not fully settled, the band could wander while retaining its coherence. At higher discharge it could abruptly spread into the surrounding water downstream of the entrance. Short illumination by an electric spark resolved curls within what otherwise looked like a colored cloud. This connected the visible breakup with internal irregular motion rather than merely the appearance of an opaque pipe. ^[ref]

The controls are part of the result. Reynolds used a smooth entrance and let the tank rest to reduce inlet disturbances. He found that a heated tank could retain slow circulation as it cooled, so measuring one temperature was insufficient: thermal uniformity and residual motion also mattered. His wire-coil trial broke up the band below the previous onset speed, but he explicitly cautioned that once the dye was mixed he could not tell from that dye alone whether the motion became orderly again farther along the tube. In a repetition, keep the dye supply small enough to act approximately as a passive scalar, avoid a strong injection jet, and record the inlet condition and downstream observation distance. If also testing the Hagen-Poiseuille equation, allow the profile to develop and measure pressure drop between positions within the developed region; do not treat the entrance and outlet losses as part of its uniform pressure gradient. The dye experiment by itself does not establish fully developed flow. ^[ref]

The experiment's usefulness is that it compares a visible change in the motion with independently measured scales. Repeating it with several diameters and temperatures, while controlling disturbances, tests the organizing role of the Reynolds number. Its limitations are equally instructive: dye is a tracer of transport, diffusion still acts in laminar flow, and a local dye observation cannot by itself prove that turbulence persists throughout an arbitrarily long pipe.