Wiktionary
n. (context physics English) A smooth, streamline type of viscous flow in which the fluid behaves as a system of orderly layers, with no eddies or irregular fluctuations.
WordNet
n. nonturbulent streamline flow in parallel layers (laminae)
Wikipedia
In fluid dynamics, laminar flow (or streamline flow) occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between the layers. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide past one another like playing cards. There are no cross-currents perpendicular to the direction of flow, nor eddies or swirls of fluids. In laminar flow, the motion of the particles of the fluid is very orderly with all particles moving in straight lines parallel to the pipe walls. Laminar flow is a flow regime characterized by high momentum diffusion and low momentum convection.
When a fluid is flowing through a closed channel such as a pipe or between two flat plates, either of two types of flow may occur depending on the velocity and viscosity of the fluid: laminar flow or turbulent flow. Laminar flow tends to occur at lower velocities, below a threshold at which it becomes turbulent. Turbulent flow is a less orderly flow regime that is characterised by eddies or small packets of fluid particles which result in lateral mixing. In non-scientific terms, laminar flow is smooth while turbulent flow is rough.
Laminar Flow is an album by Roy Orbison recorded at Wishbone Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and released in 1979 on the Asylum Records label. It was the last album of new material Orbison would release in his lifetime - his next studio effort, In Dreams, featured re-recordings of old Orbison hits whilst Mystery Girl and King Of Hearts, his final collections of all-new material, were released posthumously.
Usage examples of "laminar flow".
This strange quality produces what hydrodynamic experts refer to as laminar flow, an effect which almost eliminates the normal turbulence produced by an object moving rapidly through water.
Although I am by no means certain the scientists fully understand what laminar flow is all about, they have certainly recognized its effectiveness.
Most of it involves adjusting profile, mass, and laminar flow parameters and then testing for lift and drag and so on.
For fluid flow there is a critical value below which the fluid motion is totally smooth and predictable (laminar flow) and above which it is totally unpredictable and chaotic (turbulent flow).
Grant saw the magnetic field stabilize, the plasma's swirling smoothed to a clean laminar flow.
The examiners' work area was an open, bright room of black counterspace and computers, water baths, containment units and laminar flow hoods.
He tried to imagine smoothing the airflow around the lifting body, easing the turbulence, soothing the laminar flow, and it almost seemed as though he were outside the ship, in a neuronet, a different neuronet, almost like smoothing the Winterlance's fusactor power flows.
He could feel the cooling touch of the lubrication he secreted, allowing a laminar flow of water past his scales.
Composed of some kind of pseudofluid material, he guessed, using a variant of laminar flow to create variable speeds along its l ength.
Composed of some kind of pseudofluid material, he guessed, using a variant of laminar flow to create variable speeds along its length.
At first, it goes straight up (this is called a laminar flow, if you need to impress anyone), and then it spreads out in a diffused, wavy layer.
The current just beneath their shelter was fast but smooth, a laminar flow that moved straight down the polished walls of the narrow canyon.
The smooth laminar flow of it as you speared along faster than anyone ever could have gone before!