Numerical Simulation of the Evolution of Non-Axisymmetric Disturbances in Cylindrical Laminar Pipe Flow

Since the well-known experiments of Reynolds in 1883 on transition of laminar to turbulent flow in a cylindrical pipe this problem has been studied without success. The main reason for this failure is the fact that laminar pipe flow is found to be stable for infinitesimal perturbations. Therefore transition can only follow from finite perturbations. This requires a nonlinear theory which at the moment is not available.