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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2006
A flow of an electrolyte in a seventy-diameter length of round pipe is subjected to a two-dimensional electric current and magnetic field which give a controllable streamwise electromagnetic body force. As the body-force distribution is axisymmetric and the effects of induced currents are negligible the fully developed pipe flow is axisymmetric and longitudinally homogeneous, but it can have severely distorted mean velocity and turbulence profiles. Measurements of the mean velocity and turbulence intensity are presented for different levels of distortion and the results are discussed with reference to classical turbulence theories. The inadequacy of these theories is thus demonstrated. The extra degree of freedom provided by the body force combines with the relative simplicity of the fully developed flow to give a useful tool for investigating the nature of shear-flow turbulence and for studying the assumptions involved in analytical approaches. The technique also produces distorted laminar pipe flows with inflexion-point velocity profiles, which are of interest in stability studies.