APPLICATIONS OF THE BERNOULLI’S EQUATION

 The Bernoulli equation can be applied to a great many situations not

just the pipe flow we have been considering up to now.

 In the following sections we will see some examples of its application

to flow measurement from tanks, within pipes as well as in open
channels.
 Measurements of flow velocity and flow rate are quite common in
many industries. Widely used devices for these are:

(i) Pitot static tube to measure velocity

(ii) Orifice – meter and Venturimeter to measure flow rate

1. Pitot Tube: It is used to measure the velocity of fluid flow
 If a stream of uniform velocity flows into a blunt body, the stream lines take a pattern similar to figure below:
 The streamlines move to the left and some to the right
 But one, in the centre, goes to the tip of the blunt body and
stops.
1 2
 It stops because at this point the velocity is zero - the fluid does
not move at this one point.
 This point is known as the STAGNATION POINT.

Apply Bernoulli along the central streamline from a point upstream where the velocity is u1 and the pressure p1 to
the stagnation point of the blunt body where the velocity is zero, u2 = 0. Also z1 = z2.

This increase in pressure which bring the fluid to rest is called the DYNAMIC PRESSURE =
Dynamic Pressure =

converting this to head using:

Therefore, Dynamic head =

Stagnation pressure =

Stagnation head =
When the BLUNT BODY is a STATIC COLUMN OF FLUID
Two piezometers, one as normal and one as a Pitot tube within the pipe
can be used in an arrangement shown below to measure velocity of
flow.
piezometers Pitot tube
Since

1 2
 the fluid is at rest at point 2 (pitot tube entry)
 Pressure is stagnant at point 2
 Velocity = 0 at point 2 (pitot tube entry)
2. Pitot - Static Tube : It consist of small bore hollow tubes (static tube + Impact
tube ) which are connected to the two legs of a manometer
STATIC TUBE:
 The opening area is parallel to the flow 1 2
direction.
 The pressure 𝑷 in the Bernoulli’s equation
is called static pressure P
𝑃 𝑉2 Impact tube static tube
+ + 𝑍 = constant
𝜌𝑔 2𝑔

IMPACT TUBE:
The opening area is perpendicular to the flow direction
Applying Bernoulli's equation betweeen 1 and 2
P1 V12 P2 V2 2
  Z1    Z2
 g 2g  g 2g
Z1  Z 2 , P1  P, V2  0 and V1  V
P V2 P
  2
 g 2g  g
- Static tube measure the static pressure (P)
1
P2  P  V 2
2
Stagnation pressure = Static pressure + dynamic pressure - Impact tube measure the stagnation pressure 𝑷2
FLOW VELOCITY IN TERMS OF MANOMETRIC HEAD

1 2

ρ
P
Impact tube static tube 𝑃
1
P  V 2 hm
2
Pressure at left of tube = Pressure at right of tube ρm
P2    ghm   P   m ghm Manometer
 1 2
 P  V     ghm   P   m ghm
 2 
1
V 2    m    ghm
2
 m 
Velocity of flow = V  2   1 ghm
  
PITOT STATIC TUBE – MEASURING FLUID FLOW VELOCITY
APPLICATION - PITOT STATIC SYSTEM TO MEASURE AIRSPEED OF AN AIRCRAFT

A pitot-static system is a system of pressure-sensitive instruments that is most often used in

aviation to determine an aircraft's airspeed, Mach number, altitude, and altitude trend.
Several commercial airline disasters have been traced to a failure of the pitot-static system
3. ORIFICE METER AND VENTURI METER
 used for flow rate measurement
 They operate on Bernoulli’s principle i.e a decrease in flow area causes an increase in
velocity and a decrease in pressure as shown in the figure below (a nozzle).
P1 V12 P2 V2 2
  Z1    Z2
 g 2g  g 2g

𝑉1 𝑉2
𝑉2 ⊳ 𝑉1
P1
1 2 𝑃2 ⊲ 𝑃1
𝑃2
3.1. ORIFICE METER - It is a thin plate with an orifice (hole) at the middle
of the plate, usually DPipe
Dorifice 
2
 When fluid flows through the orifice, it experiences a drop in static pressure due
to reduction in area and this is measured by two static tubes placed before and
after the orifice plate
 Flow rate is calculated from the measured pressure difference across the plate

Orifice (drop in static pressure due

to reduction in area) Orifice plate
Orifice plate

1 2

static tube static tube

Orifice

Manometer
HOW TO DERIVE FLOW RATE (Q)
Apply Bernoull's equation to point 1 and 2
P1 V12 P2 V2 2
  Z1    Z2
 g 2g  g 2g
Since Z1  Z 2 ,
V2 2 V12 P1 P2
  
2g 2g g g
V2 2 V12 P1 P2
  
2 2  
2
V2  V1 
2 2
 P1  P2 

From Continuity equation, Q  AV
1 1  A2V2

A2V2
V1 
A1
Substitute for V1 :
2
 AV  2
V2   2 2  
2
 P1  P2 
 A1  
  A2  
2
2
V2 1  
2
    P1  P2 

  1  
A


 D2
But, A 
4
   D2 2  
2

   
2 
V2 1   4
2 
  2  P1  P2 
   D1   
   
  4  
  D2 4   2
V2 1  
2
    P1  P2 
  D 1
4
  
D1  Pipe diameter
D2  Orifice diameter
2  P1  P2 
V2   Orifice velocity
 1   4 
D2
Where,  
D1
Flow rate or Theoretical Discharge = Qth  A2V2
 2  P1  P2  
Qth  A2  


 1   4  
ACTUAL DISCHARGE (Qactual)

Actual Discharge will be less than theoretical discharge since there will be loss of
energy across the orifice plate due to sudden change in area and this was not
considered.
𝑄𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 < 𝑄𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙
So, theoretical discharge is multiplied by an empirical constant called COEFFICIENT OF DISCHARGE
(Cd) to obtain ACTUAL DISCHARGE

 2P  P  
Actual Discharge = Qac  Cd A2  1 2

  1    
4
 
 2  P1  P2  
Qac  CA2  
  
Cd
Where, C 
1  4
Actual Discharge  Theoretical Discharge  Cd
FLOW RATE IN TERMS OF MANOMETRIC HEAD (hm)

(P1 – P2) in the above equation for Q is commonly measured by a manometer as head of
the indicating liquid (hm) in the figure below

Orifice plate

1 2

static tube static tube

ρ hm

P1   ghm  P2   m ghm
ρm
P1  P2    m    ghm
Manometer
 m 
Qac  CA2 2   1 ghm  Actual Discharge in terms of head
 
ADVANTAGES OF ORIFICE METER

- Simple and cheap

DISADVANTAGES

- Significant energy loss

- Not very accurate especially at low flow rates

3.2. Venturi Meter : The Venturi meter is a device for measuring discharge in a pipe.
 It consists of a rapidly converging section which increases the velocity of flow and hence reduces the pressure,
followed by a small length of uniform area called the THROAT. It then returns to the original dimensions of the
pipe by a gently diverging 'diffuser' section.
 Static pressures are measured at two locations, just before the entrance to the meter and at the throat.
 This is a particularly accurate method of flow measurement as energy loss are very small.

THROAT - The discharge equation derived for orifice

meter can also be used for venturi meter.

2  m 
Qac  CA2 2   1 ghm  Actual Discharge in terms of head
D
1  
A2  Area of the throat
Z2
Z1 hm

datum
ADVANTAGES OF VENTURI METER

- Accurate over a wide range of flow rates

- Negligible energy loss

DISADVANTAGE

- Quite large
 TUTORIALS
Tutorial 1. In a vertical pipe carrying water, pressure gauges are inserted at points A and B where the pipe
diameters are 0.15m and 0.075m respectively. The point B is 2.5m below A and when the flow rate down the pipe is
0.02m3/s, the pressure at B is 14715 N/m2 greater than that at A. If the gauges at A and B are replaced by tubes
filled with water and connected to a U-tube containing mercury of relative density 13.6.

(i) Assuming the losses in the pipe between A and B can be expressed as
where v is the velocity at A, find the value of k.
(ii) Give a sketch showing how the levels in the two limbs of the U-tube differ
(iii) Calculate the value of this difference in metres.
0.15m

0.075m
SOLUTION
Part i)

Taking the datum at B, the Bernoulli equation becomes:

By continuity: Q = uAAA = uBAB

Part ii)
TUTORIAL 2a.
Using the Bernoulli equation, show that the discharge through an orifice is given by
where Ao is the area of the orifice and h is the head of water above the orifice.

SOLUTION
 The streamlines contract after the orifice to a minimum value when they all become parallel, at this point, the
velocity and pressure are uniform across the jet. This convergence is called the vena contracta

 The general arrangement and a close up of the hole and streamlines are shown in the figure below:

Apply Bernoulli along the streamline joining point 1 on the surface to point 2 at the centre of the orifice.
At the surface:
velocity is negligible (u1 = 0)
pressure atmospheric (p1 = 0).
At the orifice the jet is open to the air so again
pressure is atmospheric (p2 = 0).
If we take the datum line through the orifice then z1 = h and z2 =0, leaving

This is the theoretical value of velocity.

Friction losses have not been taken into account. To incorporate friction we use the coefficient of velocity to correct
the theoretical velocity,

The actual area of the jet is the area of the vena contracta not the area of the orifice. We obtain this area by using a
coefficient of contraction for the orifice
So the discharge through the orifice is given by:

Where Cd is the coefficient of discharge, and Cd = Cc ´ Cv

TUTORIAL 2b.
A tank of water is 5.6 m by 4.3 m as shown in the figure. Water from the tank discharges to the atmosphere through
a 200 mm diameter orifice in the base. Over a period of 5 mins 7 secs the water level drops from 1.9 m to 0.7 m
above the orifice. What is the value of the coefficient of discharge of the orifice? Work from first principles.

SOLUTION
We can integrate this expression to get the time the level in the tank takes to fall a certain amount.

Tank emptying from level h1 to h2

The tank has a cross sectional area of A.

In a time dt the level falls by dh or the flow out of the tank is:

(-ve sign as dh is falling)

Rearranging and substituting the expression for Q through the orifice gives
This can be integrated between the initial level, h1, and final level, h2, to give an expression for the time it takes to fall
this distance

A = 4.3 ´ 5.6 = 24.08 m

h1 = 1.9 m
h2 = 0.7 m
do = 0.20 m
Ao = do2/4 = 0.0314 m2
Time for fall in the level = 5 ´ 60 + 7 = 307 sec.

Substituting these into the equation gives:

TUTORIAL 3
A Venturimeter of throat diameter 0.076m is fitted in a 0.152m diameter vertical pipe in which liquid of relative
density 0.8 flows downwards. Pressure gauges are fitted to the inlet and to the throat sections. The throat being
0.914m below the inlet. Taking the coefficient of the meter as 0.97.
Find the discharge:
a) when the pressure gauges read the same
b)when the inlet gauge reads 15170 N/m2 higher than the throat gauge.

d2 = 0.076m
SOLUTION

Apply Bernoulli:

(a)

By continuity:
(b)
TUTORIAL 4
Water is discharging from a tank through a convergent-divergent mouthpiece. The exit from the tank is rounded so
that losses there may be neglected and the minimum diameter is 0.05m.
If the head in the tank above the centre-line of the mouthpiece is 1.83m.
a) What is the discharge?
b) What must be the diameter at the exit if the absolute pressure at the minimum area is to be 2.44m of water?
c) What would the discharge be if the divergent part of the mouth piece were removed? (Assume atmospheric
pressure is 10m of water).

1
SOLUTION

Apply Bernoulli:

If we take the datum through the orifice:

Between 1 and 2
Between 1 and 3

If the mouth piece has been removed,