2 – Flow in Pipes &

Closed Conduits
1- Introduction
 The flow of water, oil and gas in pipes is of immense
practical significance in CE

Sources Pressure Water Treatment Plants Distribution Consumers

Pipelines system

 Surface water drainage and sewerage is conveyed by

closed conducts, which do not usually operate under
pressure, to sewage treatment plants, from where it is
usually discharged to a river or the sea.
 Oil and gas are often transferred from their source by
pressure pipelines to refineries (oil) or into distribution
network for a supply (gas)
 Theory of pipe flow will be discussed in this chapter.
2 - Two kinds of flow
 Osborn Reynolds (1880)
 Found 2 kinds of flow
 Laminar
 Turbulent
 Introduced Reynolds number (Re)
 VD (1)
Re 
v
where V : mean flow velocity
D : pipe diameter
v : kinetic viscosity
 Re<2000 Flow is always laminar
 2000<Re<4000 Flow is either laminar or turbulent
 Re>4000 Flow is always turbulent
 For laminar flow, the frictional head loss was proportional to velocity.
 For turbulent flow, the head loss was proportional to the square of the
velocity.
Figure 1 Reynolds Demonstration for the different
kinds of flow
Figure 2 Hydraulic gradient versus flow
velocity
3 - Frictional Loss Along a Pipe
 Fluid moving through a pipeline is
subjected to energy losses due to frictional
resistance at the pipe wall

Figure 3 Flow along a uniform pipe

 i: hydraulic gradient = slope of the pressure line
 Application of Bernoulli equation between section 1 and 2
yields,
P P (2)
Z1  1  Z 2  2  h f
g g

 Momentum equation between section 1 and 2 leads to,

( P  P ) A  gAL sin    PL (3)
1 2 0

 A : area of cross section

 P : wetted perimeter
  0 : the boundary shear stress
 Rearranging equation 2 and noting that L sin =Z1-Z2
P1  P2  0 PL (4)
g  Z1  Z 2 
 gA
 As
P1  P 2
h f 
g
 Z 1  Z 2 (5)
 Whence
 0 PL
h  (6)
 gA
f

 or
 0  gR
hf
 gRS f (7)
L
 where R (hydraulic radius) = A/P ( = D/4 for a circular pipe of diameter D).
 Rewriting (7):
D hf
(8)
 0  g
4 L
Figure 4 Velocity distribution across a pipe
 Laminar flow
 hf can be obtained theoretically in the form
of the Hagen-Pouiseuille equation:
32 LV Hagen-Pouiseuille
hf 
gD 2 Equation (9)
 Turbulent flow
2
LV Darcy-Weisbach
hf  
D 2g Formula (10)
  : Dimensionless friction factor
 1. Smooth pipes
 In the case of turbulent flow experimental work on
smooth pipes by Blasius (1913) yielded the relationship:
0.3164 Blasius equation (11)

Re 0.25
 2. Nikuradse’s experimental results
 Nikuradse conducted experiment on pipes which were
artificially roughened by sticking uniform sand grains.
 He defined Ks/D as the relative roughness.
  Figure 5 Nikuradse’s experimental results
 This figure shows that there are 5 regions of flow, as
follows:
 a. Laminar Flow
The relative roughness has no influence on the friction
factor.
64 64 (12)
 
DV Re
b. Transition from laminar to turbulent flow
 An unstable region between Re=2000 and 4000.
Pipe flow normally lies outside this region.
c. Smooth turbulence
 The limiting line of turbulent flow, approached by all
values of relative roughness as Re decreases.
d. Transitional turbulence
 The region in which  varies with both Re and Ks/D.
In practice, most pipe flow lies within this region.
e. Rough turbulence
 This region in which  remains constant for a given
Ks/D, and is independent of Re.
 3. The rough and smooth laws of Van Karman
and Prandtl
 Van Karman and Prandtl suggested the
following semi-empirical formulas:
 For smooth pipes
1 Re  (13)
 2 log
 2 . 51

 For rough pipes

1 3 .7 D (14)
 2 log
 Ks
 The smooth law is a better fit to the experimental
data than the Blasius equation.
 4. The Colebrook-White formula
 Colebrook and White studied the effects of non uniform
roughness as found in commercial pipes.
 They demonstrated that in the turbulent region, the -Re
curves exhibited a gradual change from smooth to rough
turbulence in contrast to Nikuradse’s ‘S-shaped’ curves
for uniform roughness.
 They determined an ‘effective roughness’ size for the
commercial pipes equivalent to Nikuradse’s results.
 Their experimental study leads to the following formula:

1  ks 2.51  (15)
 2 log   
  3 . 7 D Re  
 This formula is Pipe Material Ks (mm)

applicable for the Brass, copper,glass, 0.003

Perspex
whole range of the Asbestos, Cement 0.03
turbulent region for Wrought iron 0.06
Galvanised Iron 0.15
commercial pipes Plastic 0.03
using an effective Bitumen-lined ductile
iron
0.03

roughness value Spun concrete lined 0.03

ductile iron
determined Slimed concrete sewer 6.0
experimentally for
each type of pipe, as
given in Table 1.
 Combining the Darcy-Weisbach (10) and
Colebrook-White (15) equations yields an
explicit expression for the velocity V:
 Ks v 
V  2 2 gDi log   2.51  (16)
 3.7 D D 2 gDi 

 The Colebrook-White formula (15) was

first plotted in the form of a -Re diagram
by Moody and hence is generally referred
to as the ‘Moody Diagram’.
 Due to the implicit form of the Colebrook-White
equation, a number of approximations in explicit
form in  have been proposed.
 Moody produced the following formulation:
  K 10   (17) 6 1/ 3

  0.00551   20000 s
  
  D Re  

which gives  correct to 5% for 4x103 < Re < 1x107 and Ks/D<0.01.

 Barr proposed another explicit formulation for 

1  K 5.1286 
 2 log  s  0.89 
  3.7 D Re  (18)
For Re>105 this equation provides a solution for I (hf/L) to an accuracy
better than 1%
 5. The Hazen Williams formula
 Using Colebrook-White formula, Moody diagram; or Barr
formula is simple to apply for single pipeline.
 However, for pipes in series, parallel or for the more
general case of pipe networks, it rapidly becomes
impossible to use for hand calculations. For this reason,
simpler empirical formulae are still in use.
0.54
 h  (19)
V  0.355CD
0.63
 
f

 L
 or alternatively,
1 . 85
hf 6 . 78 L  V 
 1 . 165   (20)
L D C 

 Where c is a coefficient depending on pipe diameter,

material and age.
Example 1
 Crude oil of density 925 kg/m3 and
absolute viscosity 0.065 Ns/m2 at 20°C is
pumped through a horizontal pipeline 100
mm in diameter at a rate of 10 l/s.
Determine the head loss in each kilometre
of pipeline.
4 - Resistance to flow in non-
circular sections
 In order to use the same form of resistance equations
such as Darcy and Colebrook-White, it is convenient to
treat the non-circular sections as an equivalent
hypothetical circular section yielding the same hydraulic
gradient at the same discharge.
 The ‘transformation’ is achieved by expressing the
diameter D in terms of the hydraulic radius R=A/P and
since for circular pipes R=D/4, equations (10) and (15)
become:
 LV 2 1  Ks 2.51v 
hf   2 log   
8 g R (21) and  14 . 8 R 4V R   (22)
5 – Local Head Loss
 In addition to the spatially continuous head loss due to
friction, local head losses occur at changes of cross-
section, at valves and at bends.
 These local losses are sometimes referred to as ‘minor’
losses since in long pipelines their effect may be small in
relation to the friction loss.
 However, the head loss at a control valve has a primary
effect in regulating the discharge in a pipeline.
 Local losses occur at pipe bends, junctions, and valves,
etc.
 In the case of long pipelines (e.g. several kilometers) the
local losses may be negligible, but for short pipelines,
they may be greater than the frictional losses.
 Local losses is given by:

V2
hL  K L (23)
2g
hL : local head loss
KL: constant for a particular fitting.

 For sudden enlargement (exit from a tank) an expression may be

derived from KL in terms of area of the pipe.
 This result may be extended to the case of a sudden contraction.
For all other cases (bends, valves, junctions, bellmouths, etc) values
of KL must be derived experimentally.
 A. Sudden enlargement

Figure 6 Sudden enlargement

 Application of the equation of momentum and the

equation of continuity between section 1 and 2 yields
P1 A1  P2 A2  Q(V2  V1 ) (24) and (25)
Q  V1 A1  V2 A2
 the 2 equations lead to,
P1  P2 V2 (26)
 (V1  V2 )
g g
 Bernoulli equation yields,
(V12  V22 ) ( P2  P1 ) (27)
hL  
2g g
 So,
(V1  V2 ) 2 (28)
hL 
2g
 by using (25) we obtain
2
V12  A1 
hL  1  
2g  A2  (29)
 Whence,
2
 A1 
K L  1   (30)
 A2 
For the case of a pipe discharging into a tank, A2>A1, then KL=1.
 B. Sudden Contraction

Figure 7 Sudden contraction

 From position 1 to 1’ the flow contracts, forming a vena contracta.
Experiments indicate that the contraction of the flow area is
generally about 40%.
 If the energy loss from (1) to (1’) is assumed to be negligible, then
the remaining head loss occurs in the expansion from (1) to (2).
Since an expansion loss gave rise to (30), that equation may now be
applicable here. As A1’=0.6A2 then:
V22
hL  0.44 (31)
2g
Example 2
A uniform pipeline, 5000 m long, 200 mm in diameter and
roughness size 0.03 mm conveys water at 15°C between
two reservoirs. The difference in water level between
which is maintained constant at 50 m. In addition to the
2
entry loss of 0.5 V a valve produces a head loss of 10 V 2 .
2g 2g
Determine the steady discharge between the reservoirs
using the Colebrook-White equation and the Moody
diagram. Take ν = 1.13 x 10-6 m2/s