5/28/2021 Solving the Colebrook-White Equation with Excel | Excel Calculations

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Solving the Colebrook-White Equation with Calculations
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The Colebrook-White describes the relationship between the Reynolds
Orifice Flow Meter
Number Re, the pipe relative roughness e, and the friction factor f in
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turbulent pipe flow.
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Usually, we fix a value for Re and e, and compute f.  However, this equation ▼ 2011 (34)
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cannot be solved explicitly, so numerical iteration is needed. ► December (3)

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There's several ways we can do this in Excel.  I'll outline the two most
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convenient methods.  If you just want the spreadsheet, scroll to the bottom
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This is a screengrab of the spreadsheet included with this post.
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Solving the 1D
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Solving the
Colebrook-
White
Equation with
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Note that the parameters to be entered by the user are highlighted green.
I've also assigned cell names to each parameter, so the pipe roughness is e, FOLLOWERS
the pipe diameter is D, and so on.

Method 1 - Using VBA and Goal Seek

This VBA macro fires up Goal Seek whenever there is any change in the
worksheet (due to the Worksheet_Change() event).

Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)

https://excelcalculations.blogspot.com/2011/04/solving-colebrook-white-equation-with.html 1/3
5/28/2021 Solving the Colebrook-White Equation with Excel | Excel Calculations
Dim bSuccess As Boolean Followers (86) Next
On Error Resume Next
bSuccess = Range("fCheck").GoalSeek(0, Range("f"))
On Error GoTo 0
If Not bSuccess Then
MsgBox "Goal Seek Failed for Cell ""X""!"
End If
End Sub

The code finds the value of f that will make fCheck equal 0.

Method 2 - Worksheet Iteration

You'll need to enable worksheet iteration so that Excel can correctly resolve a
circular reference.  In Excel 2010 go to File>Options>Formulas, and
check Enable Iterative Calculations.  You might also want to
increase the number of iterations to 500, and reduce the maximum change to
0.0001).
Follow
The trick here is to rearrange the Colebrook-White equation so you have
nothing but the friction factor f on the left hand side of the equation (it can
appear on the right-hand side together with the other terms in the equation). BLOG TOP SITES

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This is the formula I've typed into Cell B17 of the spreadsheet - it's just the
rearragned Colebrook-White Equation, but with one minor change.

=1/(-2*LOG(e/(D*3.7) + 2.51/(Re*SQRT(B17+1E-300))))^2

When Excel starts iterating, it initializes B17 with a value of zero.  However,
this will a divide-by-zero error.  To resolve this, I've added a very small
number (1E-300) to B17.  This doesn't significantly change the accuracy of the
computer friction factor.

Both Method 1 and 2 give roughly the same value of f.  I prefer Method 1
(purely because enabling spreadsheet iteration means you will not necessarily
be informed of any unintended circular references).

Download Excel 97 Spreadsheet for Solving the Colebrook-White Equation

Download Excel 97 Spreadsheet to Solve Colebrook equation with Automated

Goal Seek (VBA)

Labels: Colebrook-White, Goal Seek, iteration, VBA

3 comments:
robhanson said...
Hi,

I've been using the second method but have a problem. If you remove
one of the variables, then re-enter the formula no longer works, unless
you change it very slightly, i.e. by removing a 0 from b8. Any idea why
this happens? It happens in yours also, bit confusing!

thanks,
Rob

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5/28/2021 Solving the Colebrook-White Equation with Excel | Excel Calculations
February 10, 2012 at 5:40 AM

Unknown said...
That happens with me as well. I'll look into this when I have time.
S
February 10, 2012 at 11:08 AM

Pez said...
i tend to nest "iferror()" statements around problematic areas, such as
square roots and places where "div0#" errors may occur, with default, or
starting values, this stops the formula from causing an error, if it does,
the calculation simply resets.

typically once an error of some kind occurs in an iterative solution, it is

not as simple as resetting the values to reset the formula, you need to
fix the result from the error to the default to allow the calculation to
proceed.
February 22, 2012 at 2:27 PM

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