Roughness Coefficient , Eq

uivalent Length &

Piping Schedule No.
26- NOV -2015
Joon Eeo
School of Chemical Engineering
University of Ulsan

Roughness Coefficient
Commercial pipes comes in many different materials and many different sizes. The
internal roughness of a pipe is an important factor when considering the friction
losses of a fluid moving through the pipe.
For each pipe material either a single pipe roughness value or a range of roughness
values is normally provided by the manufacturer. The roughness value, usually
denoted as e, is used in the calculating the relative roughness of a pipe against the
size of its diameter
Absolute Roughness : The roughness of a pipe is normally specified
in either mm or inches and common values range from 0.0015 mm
for PVC pipes through to 3.0 mm for rough concrete pipes.
The relative roughness of a pipe is its roughness divided by its
internal diameter or e/D, and this value is used in the calculation
of the pipe friction factor, which is then used in the Darcy-Weisbach
equation to calculate the friction loss in a pipe for a flowing fluid.

Roughness Coefficient

Roughness Coefficient

Roughness Coefficient

Friction Loss
Factors to affect the head loss in pipe
- Viscosity to be handled
- Size of the pipe
- Resistance through various valves and fittings
- Roughness of the internal surface of the pipe
- Changes in elevation
- Length of travel of the fluid

Friction Loss

Darcy Weisbach Equation

This formula recognized that pipe friction is dependent on
condition like roughness of pipe internal surface, internal
diameter, internal velocity and viscosity.

where : friction loss, ft or m of liquid

: friction factor
L : Pipe length , ft or m
D : Pipe inside diameter, ft or m
V : Average pipe velocity in ft/sec or m/sec
g : Gravitational constant (32.174 ft/)
(9.8m/)

Friction Loss Darcy Friction Factor

, which is 4 times greater than the Fanning Friction factor
used with Weisbach equation has now become the standard head
loss equation for calculating head loss in pipes where the flow is
turbulent.
Initially the Darcy-Weisbach equation was difficult apply, since no
electronic calculators were available and many
calculations had to be carried out by hand.

For
laminar flow(Reynolds No. below 2000) the roughness has no
effect and the friction factor

Friction Loss Darcy Friction Factor

For
laminar flow(Reynolds No. below 2000) the roughness has no
effect and the friction factor

For
turbulent flow(Raynolds No. above 4000) the friction factor is
affected by both the roughness and the Reynolds No. and can be
determined from an equation development by C.F. Coolbrook(1939)
= -2
Where
/sec

R = VD/

Friction Loss Moody Chart

Since the Colebrook equation is nonfactorable in (f) and therefore
difficult to solve, its solution is presented graphically on chart
developed by C.F. Moody

Equivalent Length
BECAUSE obtaining complete test data on the pressure drop of every
available size and type of valve and pipe fitting is impossible,
a practical method for extending available information is useful.
This technique, known as the equivalent-length method for calculating
pressure losses, applies only to single phase, non-compressible, nonflashing liquids.

Equivalent Length

Equivalent Length

Equivalent Length
Screwed fittings

Flanged fittings

Equivalent Length Example

A pipe run consists of 37 ft of 4 inch diameter straight pipe,
3-90 elbows, 2-wide open gate valves and 1- wide open glove valve.
What total equivalent length of straight pipe is used to calculate head
loss?
Solution :
From the table
-

Straight pipe 37 ft
3-90 elbows : 3 11 ft = 33 ft
2-wide open gate valves : 2 2.5 = 5.0 ft
1- wide open glove valve : 115 ft

Total equivalent length : 37 + 33+ 5 + 115 = 190 ft

Schedule No.
For all pipe sizes the outside diameter (O.D.) remains relatively
constant. The variations in wall thickness affects only the inside
diameter (I.D.).
A schedule number indicates the approximate value of
Sch. No. = 1000 P/S
where
P = service pressure (psi)
S = allowable stress (psi)

The higher the schedule number is, the thicker the pipe is. Since the
outside diameter of each pipe size is standardized, a particular
nominal pipe size will have different inside pipe diameter depending
on the schedule specified.

Schedule No.
Welded and Seamless Wrought Steel Pipe
To distinguish different weights of pipe, it is common to use the Schedule terminology
from
ANSI/ASME B36.10 Welded and Seamless Wrought Steel Pipe ,
Light wall : SCH 10, 20,30,40
Standard Weight(Std, STD, ST) : SCH 60
Extra strong(Extra Heavy, EH, XH, XS) : SCH 80,100,120,140
Double Extra Strong(Double Extra Heavy, XXH, XXS)

Stainless Steel Pipe

For stainless steel pipes thru 12-inch, schedule numbers from Schedule 5S to schedule 80S
are used as published in
ANSI/ASME 36.19M Stainless Steel Pipe.
Schedule 5S (Sch/5S, S/5S)
Schedule 10S (Sch/10S, S/10S)
Schedule 40S (Sch/40S, S/40S)
Schedule 80S (Sch/80S, S/80S)

Piping Class
Piping classification must be governed by the pressuretemperature rating of the weakest pressure containing item in
a piping.
The weakest item in a piping system may be a fitting made of
weaker material or rated lower due to design and other
considerations.
Piping is classified as class
150#, 300#, 400#, 600#, 900#, 1500#, 2500# and 4000#