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Water Pipe Sizing Calculation Example
Water Pipe Sizing Calculation Example
Refer the above schematics (Fig.1) and observe the following inputs:
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Also assume that the required flow rate at the pipe end is 0.5 liter/sec.
Solution
Following stepwise procedure needs to be followed for finding out the appropriate pipe size of this
water pipe sizing calculation example:
Step-8: Determine the Actual Pressure Drop in the Pipe using Darcy-Weisbach equation and check if it is
below the permissible pressure loss as calculated in step-3
In the next part (part-2) of this pipe size calculation series will discuss about calculating effective pipe
length.
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Refer the Part-1 of this piping system design calculations series to know the problem statement and the
assumptions.
This the way of converting the Tee bends, valves and other pipe fittings in terms of equivalent pipe
length. This value is added to the already existing pipe length to calculate the effective pipe length. So
that the permissible pressure drop in the pipe can be expressed in terms of pressure drop per unit pipe
length.
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Calculation
Getting back to our pipe size calculation, we have 2 ball valves and 1 Tee bend apart from 7 meters of
pipe line. And, also our initial assumption about the pipe diameter is 20 mm.
From the equivalent pipe length table it can be found out that
And, the equivalent length for the 20mm ball valve = 7 meter
So, the effective pipe length for our example= 1+7*2+7 meter = 22 meter
Pipe Sizing Calculation – Part 4: Determining Hydraulic Diameter of the Pipe System
It is the equivalent diameter of a circular cross section pipe which produces same force kind of force
balance as that of the non-circular cross sectional duct. It is calculated from the following equation:
Hydraulic Dia (Dh) = (4* duct cross sectional area)/ (Wetted perimeter of the duct)…………………….Eq.1
The Dh (also called as hydraulic mean diameter) is used in the Reynolds number calculation and in the
Darcy–Weisbach equation.
For the water pipe sizing calculation example, we are dealing in this series,
Dh = D = 20 mm
Where,
Pipe Sizing Calculation – Part 5: Determining the Relative Roughness Using Table
This article will show the table for absolute roughness (different to coefficient of friction) of pipe
surfaces of few commonly used materials. The absolute roughness is used in the relative roughness
calculation and in the water piping system sizing design calculations through Darcy–Weisbach equation.
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Absolute Roughness Value table for Different Pipe Materials:
Aluminum 0.0012
Brass 0.001
Copper 0.0015
Concrete 0.3-3
Cement 0.3
Steel 0.045
The water pipe sizing calculation example, we are dealing with, has galvanized iron (GI) tubes. From the
above absolute surface roughness table we can see the value for GI pipe is 0.15.
Relative roughness is the ratio of the absolute roughness and hydraulic diameter.
The value of relative roughness =absolute roughness / hydraulic diameter (refer part-4)
= 0.15/ 20 = 0.0075
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In the next part (part-6), we will calculate the Reynolds number for the piping system.
Where,
L – Characteristic length
μ – Dynamic viscosity
For our water pipe sizing calculation example, we have the following inputs (refer Part-1):
Re = 35592.84
As, the Reynolds number is greater than 4000, so, the flow in our case is of turbulent type.
The next part (Part-7) will deal with the selection of correct moody friction factor.
Pipe Sizing Calculation – Part 7: Reading Moody’s Friction Factor from Chart
Moody friction factor will be used as another input for the D’arcy-Weisbech equation which is used for
calculating the final pressure drop of the piping system design calculation example. The Moody’s factor
can either be calculated by using Colebrook equation or by using Moody diagram. We will use the
diagram for finding out the friction factor value for our water pipe sizing calculation example problem.
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Fig.1: Moody
Friction Factor Diagram
1. Find out the curve most closely matching with your relative roughness value.
For our example problem, we already found out the value of the relative roughness in Part-5 as 0.0075.
So I will use the 6th curve (0.01) from the top.
1. Find out the intersection point of the relative roughness curve and the calculated Reynolds
number.
For our example problem, we already calculated the value of the Reynolds number in Part-
6 as 35592.84. I have marked the approximated intersection point for our example by red dot in the
above Moody chart.
1. Draw a horizontal line from the intersection point towards the friction factor axis to find out the
approximate friction factor value. Adjust the friction factor value according to the difference
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between the actual relative roughness value and the relative roughness curve you have selected
initially.
For our example, the approximate Moody friction factor value is coming around 0.04. And after
adjusting the final friction factor comes to 0.035.
In the next part (Part-8) of this piping sizing calculation tutorial we will use the D’arcy-Weisbech
equation to find out the final pressure drop.
We have reached the final part of the water piping system design calculation example tutorial. We will
use most of the data calculated so far (refer Part-1 to Part-7) as input for the D’Arcy-Weisbach pressure
loss equation. From this equation we will know the actual pressure or head loss in the pipe system. Then
we will check whether the actual pressure drop in pipe is less than the already calculated permitted
pressure loss in the piping system.
Δh = λ*(l/dh)*(v2/2*g)…………………………….Eq.1
Where,
dh – Hydraulic diameter
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For using the D’Arcy Weisbach formula (Eq.1) for our water piping system example, we have the
following inputs:
By inputting the above values to the Eq.1, we will get the total head loss for our case as
Δh = 4.96 meter
Pressure head drop per unit length of pipe = Δh / l = 4.96/22 = 0.225 meter of head per meter of pipe
run.
Now refer the permissible head loss calculation of Part-3 and you will find that permissible value for our
case is 0.22 meter of head per meter of pipe run.
So, we can conclude that the pipe diameter of 20 mm, we assumed at the beginning of this tutorial, is
safe for the water piping system problem considered for this tutorial.
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