Prof Osborne Reynolds

Osborne Reynolds was England’s first full-time professor of engineering at The University of Manchester, where he established himself, over a 37-year career, as the nation’s pre-eminent engineering fluid mechanicist.

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The School of Engineering at the University of Manchester currently hosts the original apparatus, pictured above, in its laboratories. 

The glass tube with flared entry, which is housed within a tank filled with water, still offers a very clear indication of the starkly contrasting states of motion, whether streamline or sinuous (or, in today’s terminology, laminar or turbulent). In Reynolds’ own words: “The internal motion of water assumes one or other of two broadly distinguishable forms – either the elements of the fluid follow one another along lines of motion which lead in the most direct manner to their destination, or they eddy about in sinuous paths the most indirect possible.” Reynolds’ dye-streak studies showed that, for a range of flow velocities, pipe diameters, and viscosities, transition from the former mode to the latter occurred for roughly the same value of the dimensionless parameter that today bears his name.

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In his honour and name, the Osborne Reynolds Day celebrates his achievements, featuring presentations by some of the UK's brightest newly-graduated and soon-to-graduate PhDs in fluid mechanics. 

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For a comprehensive overview of Prof Reynolds' achievements, please refer to an article authored by Prof Derek Jackson and Prof Brian Launder from the University of Manchester, published in 2007 in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics [download] which can also be viewed below.