The effects of swirl on internal turbulent flows are studied by conducting experiments on turbulent pipe flow with variable initial swirl. This first part of the study is primarily concerned with similarity laws. The mean velocity profiles, both away from and close to the wall, are found to admit similarity representations at sufficiently large Reynolds numbers, provided that flow reversal does not take place near the entrance. While the wall law is not sensibly dependent on swirl, the velocity defect law in its extended form is sensitive to swirl. Further, a logarithmic skin-friction law is obtained in which only the additive coefficient depends on swirl. This coefficient is found to vary linearly with the swirl angle in the range of the present experiments
