FLOW IN CONDUITS

Fourth Lecture(Chapter 10)

ILOS in this chapter
Knowledge:
• Describe fully developed flow in a conduit.
• Characterize total head loss in different fittings and pipe head loss.
• Derive the Darcy-Weisbach equation and Poiseuille flow solution.
• Understand features of the Moody diagram.

Practice and Analysis:

• Classify flow laminar or turbulent and whether in developing or fully developed.
• Using equations or Moody diagram to find values of the friction factor f.
• Calculate pipe head loss, component head loss, and total head loss.

Professional Applications
• Determine pressure losses in piping system
• For specific piping system determine the pipe size
• Select suitable pump for specified system under specific piping size

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 Flow classifications – Laminar or Turbulent
■ A conduit is any pipe, tube, or duct that is completely filled with a flowing fluid. Examples
include a pipeline transporting liquefied natural gas, a microchannel transporting hydrogen in
a fuel cell, and a duct transporting air for heating of a building.
■ The main goal of this lecture is to know how to determine head loss. It is major to identify flow
type (laminar or turbulent), is developing or fully developed, and then it will be easy to define
suitable equations to calculate head losses in pipes and fittings.
■ Reynolds found that the onset of turbulence is
determined by what now commonly known as Reynolds
Number (Re); 𝑅𝑒 = 𝜌𝑉𝐷Τ𝜇. This limit is found to be at
Re≈2100, but for ideal case it is found to be Re=2000.
■ Thus it is correct to define flow conditions in conduits as
follows:

■ In other references, the transition may occur at Re=2300.

■ For flow in pipe, there are many forms to compute Re:
𝜌𝑉𝐷 𝑉𝐷 4𝑄 4𝑚ሶ
𝑅𝑒 = = = =
𝜇 𝜈 𝜋𝐷𝜈 𝜋𝐷𝜇
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 Developing Flow – Fully Developed Flow
■ For laminar flow entering pipe, as the fluid moves downstream, its velocity profile is changed due to
viscous shear stress, causing plug-type profile to gradually change into a parabolic profile. In this
region the flow is called developing flow.
■ After the parabolic distribution is achieved, the flow profile remains unchanged in the streamwise
direction, and flow is called fully developed flow.
■ The distance required to achieve fully developed flow is called the entrance length, le. Its value
depends on shear stress acting on the pipe wall. The entry length is defined as the distance at which
the shear stress reaches to within 2% of the fully developed value and can be for circular pipe
computed as:

Generally, the flow in a conduit can be classified

into four categories: laminar developing, laminar
fully developed, turbulent developing, or
turbulent fully developed depending on the value
of the Reynolds number.

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Notes about fluid flow
■ Average velocity in a pipe
– Recall - because of no-slip condition, as velocity at the walls of a pipe or duct flow is zero
– It is usually to use only Vavg, and can be easy called V (drop the subscript for convenience)
– the no-slip condition causes shear stress and friction along the pipe walls
■ For pipes of constant diameter and incompressible flow
– Vavg stays the same down the pipe, even if the velocity profile changes
– Why? Conservation of Mass
Friction force of wall on fluid
same
■ For pipes with variable diameter:
– m is still the same due to conservation of mass, but V1 ≠ V2
D1
Vavg Vavg
D2
V1 m V2 m
2
1
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Example
■ Consider fluid flowing in a round tube of length 1 m and diameter 5 mm. Classify the flow as
laminar or turbulent and calculate the entrance length for (a) air (50°C) with a speed of 12
m/s and (b) water (15°C) with a mass flow rate of 𝑚=8ሶ g/s.

■ Sketch
■ Assumptions:
– pipe is connected to reservoir,
– entrance is smooth and tapered.
■ Solution:

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 Flow in non-circular conduits
■ For non-round pipes, the hydraulic diameter is used rather than D
Dh = 4Ac/P
Ac = cross-section area
P = wetted perimeter
■ Example: open channel
Ac = 0.15 * 0.4 = 0.06m2
P = 0.15 + 0.15 + 0.5 = 0.7m
free surface is not considered, since it does not contribute to
friction along pipe walls!
Thus, Dh = 4Ac/P = 4*0.06/0.7 = 0.34 m
What does it mean? This channel flow is equivalent to a round
pipe of diameter 0.34 m (approximately).

■ Standard sizing of pipes is specified using two values: the

Nominal Pipe Size (NPS) and a schedule. The nominal pipe size
determines the outside diameter or OD. For example, pipes with a
nominal size of 2 inches have an OD of 2.375 inches. Once the
nominal size reaches 14 inches, the nominal size and the OD are
equal. That is, a pipe with a nominal size of 24 inches will have
an OD of 24 in. Pipe schedule is related to the thickness of the
wall.

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 Pipe Head Loss
■ Darcy-Weisbach equation is one of the most used equation for calculating head loss in a
straight run of pipe where:
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 + 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠
Pipe head (major) loss is due to shear stress of fully developed flow in conduit using Darcy Eqn..
Component head (minor) loss associated with flow through fittings as valves, bends, tees, …
■ For fully developed steady flow in tube of diameter D and control volume of length ΔL, then
momentum equation in streamwise direction (s) and radial coordination in r direction:

For steady flow then momentum accumulation = 0

As the flow is fully developed, net efflux momentum=0
Thus σ 𝐹 = 𝐹𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 + 𝐹𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 + 𝐹𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 = 0
𝜋𝐷2 𝜋𝐷2 Δ𝑍
Or 𝑃1 − 𝑃2 − 𝜏𝑜 𝜋𝐷Δ𝐿 − 𝛾 Δ𝐿 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼 = 0 Where 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼 =
4 4 Δ𝐿

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 Pipe Head Loss
4Δ𝐿𝜏𝑜
𝑃1 + 𝛾𝑍1 − 𝑃2 + 𝛾𝑍2 =
𝐷

■ From energy equation: where hp=ht=0 & V1=V2 & α1=α2

𝑃1 𝑃2
■ Thus energy Eqn. can be reduced to: + 𝑍1 = + 𝑍2 + ℎ𝐿 or 𝑃1 + 𝛾𝑍1 − 𝑃2 + 𝛾𝑍2 = 𝛾ℎ𝐿
𝛾 𝛾
4Δ𝐿𝜏𝑜
■ Or ℎ𝐿 = . If ΔL is replaced by L, then new symbol can be represented known as head loss in
𝛾𝐷
pipe:
4𝐿𝜏𝑜 𝐿 4𝜏𝑜 𝜌𝑉 2 /2 4𝜏𝑜 𝐿 𝑉2
ℎ𝑓 = = =
𝐷𝛾 𝐷 𝜌𝑉 2 /2 𝛾 𝜌𝑉 2 /2 𝐷 2𝑔
■ Red is dimensionless friction factor (f) represents the ratio of shear stress to kinetic pressure:
𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙 4𝜏
= 𝑓 = 2𝑜 ; other names are given for this friction factor, Darcy
𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝜌𝑉 /2
friction factor, Darcy-Weisbach friction factor, and Fanning friction factor.
𝐿 𝑉2
■ Darcy-Weisbach friction factor ℎ𝑓 = 𝑓 is used for fully developed steady flow either laminar
𝐷 2𝑔
flow or turbulent flow and either round pipes or nonround conduits such as a rectangular.
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 Shear Stress in Pipe Flow
■ For prescribed control volume of flow in pipe force equation:

Δ𝑍 𝑟 𝑑
■ Where W=γAΔL and 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼 = Thus 𝜏 = − 𝑃 + 𝛾𝑍 which means that, the shear-stress
Δ𝐿 2 𝑑𝑠
distribution varies linearly with r. As the flow velocity is maximum at centerline, shear stress is
zero at the centerline and reaches its maximum value at the wall in linear variation in between.
■ This variation of shear stress applies to both laminar and turbulent flow

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 Laminar flow in circular pipe
■ Laminar flow is important for flow in microchannels, for lubrication flow, and for analyzing other flows in which
viscous forces are dominant with Re<2000.
■ Laminar flow in a round tube is called Poiseuille flow or Hagen-Poiseuille flow
𝑑𝑉 𝑑𝑉
■ In this flow, velocity profile is determined according to shear stress as: 𝜏 = 𝜇 𝑑𝑦 = −𝜇 𝑑𝑟 consider 𝑦 = 𝑟0 − 𝑟
𝑟 𝑑
where 𝑟0 is the pipe radius and r is the radial coordination & 𝜏 = 2 − 𝑑𝑠 𝑃 + 𝛾𝑍
2𝜇 𝑑𝑉 𝑑 𝑑 Δ 𝑃+𝛾𝑍 𝛾Δℎ
■ Thus − = 𝑑𝑠 𝑃 + 𝛾𝑍 . It is noticed that: 𝑑𝑠 𝑃 + 𝛾𝑍 = 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = =
𝑟 𝑑𝑟 Δ𝐿 Δ𝐿
𝑑𝑉 𝑟 𝛾Δℎ 𝑟 2 𝛾Δℎ
■ Then rearrange for velocity gradient: =− by integration to get velocity profile: 𝑉 = − +𝐶
𝑑𝑟 2𝜇 Δ𝐿 4𝜇 Δ𝐿

𝑟𝑜2 𝛾Δℎ 𝑟𝑜2 −𝑟 2 𝛾Δℎ

■ Use boundary conditions to evaluate C at r=r0, V=0, then = 𝐶 or 𝑉 = − 4𝜇 Δ𝐿
4𝜇 Δ𝐿
𝑟 2 𝛾Δℎ
■ The maximum velocity occurs at r=0 (centerline) with value: 𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥 = − 4𝜇
𝑜
Δ𝐿
, so velocity distribution can be
rearranged:
2
𝑟
𝑉(𝑟) = 𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥 1−
𝑟𝑜

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 Head loss and friction factor, f 𝑟𝑜 𝛾Δℎ 1 2
■ The flow mean velocity is found to be 𝑉ത = − 8𝜇 = 𝑉
Δ𝐿 2 𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑃1 𝑃2
■ Consider energy equation for fully developed flow in pipe: + 𝑧1 = + 𝑧2 + ℎ𝑓
𝛾 𝛾
𝑃2 𝑃
𝑟𝑜2 𝛾Δℎ 𝐷2 Δℎ 𝛾𝐷2 +𝑧2 − 𝛾1 −𝑧1
With flow mean velocity 𝑉ത = 𝛾
■ − 8𝜇 Δ𝐿 = − 32𝜇 𝛾 Δ𝐿 = − 32𝜇 for ΔL=L
Δ𝐿
𝑃1 𝑃2 32𝜇𝑉𝐿 32𝜇𝑉𝐿
■ Then + 𝑧1 = + 𝑧2 + or ℎ𝑓 =
𝛾 𝛾 𝛾𝐷2 𝛾𝐷2
𝐿 𝑉2 32𝜇𝑉𝐿 𝐷 2𝑔 64𝜇 64
■ From Darcy equation: ℎ𝑓 = 𝑓 𝐷 2𝑔 then 𝑓 = = 𝜌𝑉𝐷 = 𝑅𝑒
𝛾𝐷2 𝐿 𝑉 2

■ The friction factor for laminar flow depends only on Reynolds number.

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THANK YOU
Now Your Questions, please.