ENERGY LOSSES IN PIPES

EXPERIMENT

SUMMARY

The objective of this experiment is basically to study the change of pressure drop in a pipe
with the change in rate of flow, to observe the transition from laminar to turbulent flow and to compare
the measured values of the friction factor from experiment with published charts. The collection of data
from this experiment can be used to determine flow velocity, shear stress, friction factor and Reynolds
number which shown in table 3 and 4 of this experiment. Generally, decreasing of pressure drop will
lead to decreasing of flow rate, friction factor and Reynolds number. From the data of this experiment,
the laminar flow and turbulent flow region can be determined. Some data in this are not accurate. This
proves with inconsistence values of calculated friction factor. These happen due to some errors that
occur while carrying the experiment.

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APPARATUS

Hydraulic Bench is used in this experiment. Water is supplied to 3mm internal diameter tube of length
500mm either from a header tank (for low flow) and the pump of hydraulic bench (for high flow). The
pressure of water drop along tube measured using either an air-over-water manometer (for low flow) or
a hand-held pressure meter (for high flow). The flow rate can be controlled using a needle valve at the
exit from the tube. This flow rate is measured by taking time using stop watch for the discharge of water
into a measuring cylinder.

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RESULT

Table 1: Low Flow using Manometer

Manometer levels Pressure Drop Water Volume Time interval Flow Rate, Q
Left (mm) Right (mm) (mm H2O) (ml) (s) (ml/s)
190 485 295 115 18.12 6.315
200 475 275 125 20.42 6.121
215 465 250 121 20.85 5.803
240 450 210 116 21.54 5.385
245 435 190 130 24.90 5.221
260 425 165 132 26.19 5.040
270 415 145 136 28.23 4.818
280 405 125 126 28.30 4.452
294 395 101 130 34.58 3.760
305 386 81 127 41.92 3.030
316 376 60 119 52.34 2.274
329 365 36 101 71.42 1.414
337 358 21 92 134.32 0.685

Table 2: High Flow using Pressure Meter

Pressure Drop (cm H2O) Water Volume (ml) Time Interval (s) Flow Rate, Q (ml/s)
205 176 8.50 20.706
195 189 9.88 19.130
185 180 9.25 19.450
175 200 10.47 19.102
165 197 10.98 17.942
144 214 12.55 17.052
130 190 11.68 16.267
105 196 13.65 14.359
96 199 14.42 13.800
75 196 16.16 12.129
60 205 19.00 10.789
40 178 20.21 8.808
20 182 27.24 6.681

Temperature of water flow: 21 °C

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Graph 1: Pressure Drop against Volumetric Flow Rate

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 Table 3: Data for Low Flow

Shear
Flow rate, Q Pressure drop, Flow velocity, Reynolds Friction Factor from Friction factor
stress,
(m3/s) ∆P (N/m²) u (m/s) Number, Re
 measured reading, f from equation, f
6.315 2890.477
 10 6 0.898 2754.601 0.010754 0.005808
4.336
6.121 2694.513
6
 10 0.866 2656.442 0.010779 0.006023
4.042
5.803 2449.557
6
 10 0.821 2518.405 0.010901 0.006353
3.674
5.385 2057.628
6
 10 0.762 2337.423 0.010630 0.006845
3.086
5.221 1861.663
6
 10 0.739 2266.871 0.010225 0.007058
2.792
5.040 1616.708
6
 10 0.713 2187.117 0.009540 0.007316
2.425
4.818 1420.743
6
 10 0.682 2092.025 0.009163 0.007648
2.131
4.452 1224.779
6
 10 0.630 1932.515 0.009257 0.008279
1.837
3.760 989.621
6
 10 0.532 1631.902 0.010487 0.009805
1.484
3.030 793.656
6
 10 0.429 1315.951 0.012932 0.012159
1.190
2.274 587.894
6
 10 0.322 987.7301 0.017013 0.016199
0.882
1.414 352.736 0.200 613.4969 0.529 0.026450 0.026080

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 10 6

0.685 205.763
6
 10 0.097 297.546 0.065682 0.053773
0.309

Graph 2: f against Q – low flow

Graph 3: ∆P against Re for Low Flow (using log scale) - low flow

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 Table 4: Data for High Flow

Shear
Flow rate, Q Pressure Drop, Flow velocity, Reynolds Friction factor from Friction factor
stress,
(m3/s) Δp(N/m²) U (m/s) number, Re
 measured readings, f from equation, f
20.706 20086.367
 10 6 2.929 8984.663 30.130 0.007024 0.008114

19.130 19106.545
 10 6 2.706 8300.613 28.660 0.007828 0.008277

19.450 18126.722
 10 6 2.752 8441.718 27.190 0.00718 0.008242

19.102 17146.899
 10 6 2.702 8288.344 25.720 0.007046 0.00828

17.942 16167.076
 10 6 2.538 7785.276 24.251 0.00753 0.00841

17.052 14109.448
 10 6 2.412 7398.773 21.164 0.007276 0.008518

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 16.267 12737.696
 10 6 2.301 7058.282 19.107 0.007218 0.008619

14.359 10288.139
 10 6 2.031 6230.061 15.432 0.007482 0.008892

13.800 9406.299
 10 6 1.952 5987.73 14.109 0.007406 0.008981

12.129 7348.671
 10 6 1.716 5263.804 11.023 0.007487 0.009275

10.789 5878.937
 10 6 1.526 4680.982 8.818 0.007573 0.009551

8.808  10 6 3919.291 1.246 3822.086 5.880 0.007575 0.010047

6.681  10 6 1959.646 0.945 2898.773 2.939 0.006582 0.010766

Graph 4: f against Q - high flow

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Graph 5: ∆P against Re for Low Flow (using log scale) - high flow

Discussion

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 The aims of this experiment is generally to investigate how change of pressure drop in a
pipe effect rate of flow, observe transition between laminar to turbulent flow and compare calculation
of measured friction forces with published chart. This experiment was conducted using Hydraulic bench.
There were low flow rates and high flow rates of water that went through 500mm tube. The result of
this experiment clearly shows that when the pressure drops decrease, the flow rate also decreases. This
happen because when pressure decrease, the force that push water also decrease which will lead to
decreasing of water flow rate.

Values of friction factor can be determined from the results of this experiment. Based
on table 3 and table 4, friction factor that gain from equation decrease with decreasing of flow rate. The
values of friction factor that gain from equation depends on value of Reynolds numbers. When Reynolds
numbers decrease, the friction factor also decreases regardless the type of flow, whether it is laminar or
turbulent flow. However, friction factor that calculated from measured pressure drop in this experiment
change inconsistently. The values of calculated friction factor also differ with friction factor that
determined using equation. This maybe occurs due to some errors while conducting experiment. For
instance, the errors while taking readings from manometer and pressure meter.

The relationship between Reynolds number and pressure drop can also investigated
from the result of this experiment. As other properties before this, Reynolds number will decrease with
decreasing of pressure drop. The relationship between Reynolds number and pressure drop showed
obviously in log scale graph, graph 3 for low flow and graph 5 for high flow. The slope of graph 3 is
992.07 while for graph 5 is 16878.

Laminar flow occurs at low flow while turbulent flow occurs at high flow. There are
transition region between laminar flow and turbulent flow. In this experiment, flow that have Re less
than 1800 consider as laminar flow while Re greater than 2300 consider as turbulent flow. Region
between laminar flow and turbulent flow is transition region. These types of flow region affect the
relation between pressure drop and flow rate. For instance, friction factor, f for laminar and turbulent
flow was determined using different method. This proves that laminar and turbulent flow affects the
relation between pressure drop and flow rate.

Conclusion

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As the conclusion, the pressure drop in a pipe changed directly proportional with the flow rate. Besides
that, the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow occurs when the value of the Reynolds number is
between 1800 and 2300. Based on the experiment result, the values of the friction factor are slightly
different compared with the published chart .This differences happen due to error that occur during the
experiment.

Notations

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  Δp: pressure drop
 Q: Flow rate
 f: Friction factor
 Re: Reynolds number

Appendix

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List of example of calculation

1) ∆p = (ρ1-ρ2) g ∆z

= (1000-1.2) x 9.81 x (0.295)

= 2890.47 N/m²)

2) Q = V/s

= (115/1000)/18.12

= 0.00635 l/s

3) U = Q/ A A=  r2, r =0.0015m; Q convert to m3, Q(from 2)  10 3

= 6.315  10 6 /(  (0.0015)2)

= 0.898m/s

4) Re = ρud/µ µ = 9.78 x 10-4

= (1000 x 0.898 x 0.003)/ (9.78 x 10-4)

= 2754.601

5) Friction factor from measured pressure readings:

f = R/ ρu2

= 2754.601/ (1000 x 0.8982)

= 0.010754

Friction factor from the equation

-for laminar flow: f = 16/ Re -for turbulent flow: f = 0.079 Re -0.25

=16/2754.601 = 0.079 (8984.663) -0.25
= 0.005808 = 0.008114

6) Shear stress,  = (d/4l) x ∆p d = 0.003m; l = 0.5m

= (0.003/4 x 0.5) x (2890.47)

= 4.336

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