Extended Abstract:

The objective for this lab is to determine the frictional resistance for laminar flow in a
pipe. During the experiment, a pump motor was used to pump water through a pipe,
initially, it was set at the maximum flow rate. A tank was used to contain the water from
the pipe and measure the volumetric flow rate. The volumetric flow rate was calculated
by the weight change of the tank in a given time period. The time was started as soon as
the scale beam balanced, and then a 100 lb. weight was added to the beam. Time was
stopped as soon as the scale beam balanced for the second time, which indicated the
amount of water had been added into the tank is 100 lb. Then the values for 9
piezometers were recorded accordingly. For the maximum speed, three sets of data were
recorded, and the valve was adjusted and flow rate was changed to a smaller value. 5
more sets of data were obtained from different flow rate.
v∗ρ∗d
1. Length of development Le = 0.06 Re * d for laminar flow, Re =
µ
The calculated length of development for each trial is summarized in the table 2 in
tables and figures section. Standard errors are listed in table 3. Figure 1 shows the
relationship between piezometric head and distance along the pipe.

2. Figure 2 shows the relationship between hydraulic gradient and mean pipe flow
velocity on log-log axes.

γd
∗∆ p
3. Equation 3: τ0 = γ d p 4
4L γ ( )
∗∆ + z =
L

The shear stress for each flow rate is listed in table 2. The shear stress increases as the
Reynolds number goes up. This due to larger Reynolds number has a larger hf/L
slope.

L 2
∗v
4. Equation 5: h f = ∆ P + z =f d
( )
γ 2g
64
Equation 6: f=
ℜ
Figure 4 shows the experimental friction factors and Reynolds number on the log-log
scale. Figure 5 shows the theoretical friction factors and Reynolds number on the log-log
scale. The exact values are listed in the table 2. The experimental and theoretical are
really close and within ±2% range. This indicates the experimental data are accurate and
precise.

5.
Figures and tables:

Pipe diameter: 0.824 in Oil temperature: 21.0 ℃

Oil specific gravity: 0.846 Oil viscosity: 24.39 lb.*s/ft2

Table 1. Summary of h values at different location for each trial.

Average
Run 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
of 1, 2, 3
Weight, lbs 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 100
Time, sec 106.66 106.28 107.00 133.85 165.00 194.85 233.22 276.56 106.65
h1, ft oil 7.18 7.18 7.15 5.64 4.60 3.82 3.23 2.90 7.17
h2 6.74 6.72 6.72 5.29 4.33 3.60 3.05 2.56 6.73
h3 5.79 5.77 5.78 4.57 3.77 3.14 2.67 2.25 5.78
h4 4.81 4.80 4.80 3.82 3.13 2.63 2.23 1.89 4.80
h5 3.84 3.83 3.82 3.05 2.51 2.10 1.79 1.52 3.83
h6 2.90 2.89 2.90 2.30 1.91 1.60 1.37 1.16 2.90
h7 1.86 1.85 1.85 1.50 1.26 1.06 0.92 0.79 1.85
h8 1.04 1.04 1.04 0.85 0.71 0.61 0.54 0.47 1.04
h9 0.13 0.12 0.12 0.11 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.11 0.12

Table 2. Summary of velocity, Reynolds number, length of development, best-fit slope,

shear stress and friction factors for each trial

Table 3.
 8

6
Piezometric head, ft

0
0 5 10 15 20 25

Distance along the pipe, ft

Average for 1, 2, 3 4th run 5th run

6th run 7th run 8th run

Figure 1. The relationship between piezometric head and distance along the pipe

Figure 2. The linear relationship between hydraulic gradient and velocity, both are in log
scale
Figure 3. The best-fit line for hydraulic gradient line and velocity.

Figure 4. Experimental friction factor and Reynolds number, both on log scale.
Figure 5. Theoretical friction factor and Reynolds number, both on log scale.