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Accurately identifying the onset of transitional and turbulent flow within any pipe flow environment is of great interest. Most often, the critical Reynolds number (Re) is used to pinpoint the onset of turbulence. However, the critical Re is known to be highly variable, depending on the specifics of the flow system. Thus, for flows (e.g., blood flows), where only one realization (i.e., one mean Re) exists, the presence of transitional and turbulent flow behaviors cannot be accurately determined. In this work, we aim to address this by evaluating the extent to which instantaneous time-frequency (TF)-based analysis of the fluctuating velocity field can be used to evaluate the onset of transitional and turbulent flow regimes. Because current TF analysis methods are not suitable for this, we propose a novel “wavelet-Hilbert time-frequency” (WHTF) method, which we validate herein. Using the WHTF method, we analyzed the instantaneous dominant frequency of three planar particle image velocimetry-captured pipe flows, which included one steady and two pulsatile with Womersley numbers of 4 and 12. For each case, data were captured at Re's spanning 800–4500. The instantaneous dominant frequency analysis of these flows revealed that the magnitude, size, and coherence of two-dimensional spatial frequency structures were uniquely different across flow regimes. Specifically, the transitional regime maintained the most coherent, but lowest magnitude frequency structures, while the laminar regime had the highest magnitude, lowest coherence, and smallest frequency structures. Overall, this study demonstrates the efficacy of TF-based metrics for characterizing the progression of transition and turbulent flow development. 

The mechanisms driving the transition to turbulence in pulsatile flows are not well understood. Prior studies in this domain have noted the dynamics of this flow regime to depend on the mean Reynolds number, pulsation frequency (i.e., Womersley number), and inflow pulsatile waveform shape. Conflicting findings, particularly regarding the role of the Womersley number on the critical Reynolds number and the development of turbulence, have been reported. The discord has primarily been observed for flows, with Womersley numbers ranging from 4 to 12. Hence, in this work, we use particle image velocimetry to explore the effects of the Womersley number within this 4–12 range on the dynamics of the pulsatile transition. Eighteen test cases were captured using six mean Reynolds numbers (range 800–4200) and five Womersley numbers. Turbulent kinetic energy, turbulence intensity (TI), and phase lag were computed. Our results indicated that the critical Reynolds number was roughly independent of the Womersley number. At high Womersley numbers, the TI trend maintained lower pulsatility, and the flow was observed to mimic a steady transitional flow regime. A plateau of the TI-velocity and TI-acceleration phase lag was observed at a Womersley number of 8, highlighting that this may be the critical value where further increases to the Womersley number do not alter the transition dynamics. Furthermore, this suggests that the phase lag may provide a universal indicator of the specific influence of the Womersley number on transition for a given flow. Overall, these findings elucidate critical details regarding the role of the Womersley number in the transition to turbulence.