[vex]

Originally Posted by dr.occa

I must have wondered into the wrong room. I heard something about hockey pucks...I like the two I picked up for a buck fiddy each.

I'm not so sure I'd jump in the same boat regarding the comment about air and water having the same exact flow characteristics especially when water's own natural surface tension is a quantitative variable to factor in. Shouldn't surface tension be factored in since it's most likely a contributing factor to water pump cavitation issues? Speaking from a post (even pre) combustion side, even the weight of spent gas is an important variable to consider when flow testing.

Again, surface tension is not what he stated. Surface tension is nothing more than two different mediums interacting with each other. You get the same effect when different densities are present; for instance salt and fresh water or nitrogen and helium. Note that the surface tension between the two mediums becomes negligible as their densities approach unity. This is simple incompressible flow.

Water obeys the same fundamental laws as air does (energy, mass, and momentum). Hence why both mediums have circulation, currents, laminar and turbulent flows, etc, etc, etc. They both flow exactly the same. As I stated earlier you can prove this by solving for the Reynolds Number (which is a dimensionless number that accounts for the various medium's density) and applying it to both water and air. The results will be exactly the same. In fact, this is how engineers do various testing.

Anyway, I guess that might be considered splitting hairs on my part. Am I wrong in this?

It depends where you're looking at it from. From a flow stand point; both air and water flow exactly the same. From a atomization mixture stand point you are correct in that water and air will not necessarily travel the same path from an Eulerian perspective; however that does not negate the fact that they still flow exactly the same. They still are adhering to the fundamental laws which dictate flow path and direction.