1.

Absolute Roughness - 'Absolute Pipe Roughness' (ε) is a measure of pipe wall irregularities of
commercial pipes. Other than pipes, absolute roughness is also used for representing the
irregularities of other equipment walls, for example, walls of heat exchanger shell. The absolute
roughness has dimensions of length and is usually expressed in millimeter (mm) or feet (ft).
Absolute Roughness is usually defined for a material and can be measured experimentally.
The roughness of a pipe is normally specified in either mm or inches and common values range
from 0.0015 mm for PVC pipes through to 3.0 mm for rough concrete pipes.
This is also called “Equivalent Sand Grain Roughness”

2. 'Relative Roughness' or 'Roughness factor' of a pipe wall can be defined as the ratio of absolute
roughness to the pipe nominal diameter. Relative roughness factor is often used for pressure
drop calculations for pipes and other equipments. The relative roughness factor is an important
parameter for determining friction factor based on Reynold's number for flow in a pipe. Relative
roughness = ε/D. The relative roughness of a pipe is its roughness divided by its internal
diameter (To be Precise Hydraulic Diameter = 4A/P for Non Circular Conduits and this is
equal to Internal Fiameter for Circular Conduits) or e/D, and this value is used in the
calculation of the pipe friction factor, which is then used in the Darcy-Weisbach equation
to calculate the friction loss in a pipe for a flowing fluid.

The ratio of the mean height of roughness of the pipe to the pipe diameter or ε / D .

3. Roughness Height: Denoted by “k”. Is essentially same as Absolute Roughness “ ε”. Also called
Darcy Weisbach Roughness Height. Used in the calculation of Friction Factor “f"

1. ABSOLUTE ROUGHNESS (

Surface Material Absolute Roughness Coefficient - ε in mm

Aluminum, Lead 0.001 - 0.002
Drawn Brass, Drawn Copper 0.0015
Aluminum, Lead 0.001 - 0.002
PVC, Plastic Pipes 0.0015
Fiberglass 0.005
Stainless steel 0.015
Steel commercial pipe 0.045 - 0.09
Stretched steel 0.015
Weld steel 0.045
Galvanized steel 0.15
Rusted steel 0.15 - 4
Riveted steel 0.9 - 9
New cast iron 0.25 - 0.8
Worn cast iron 0.8 - 1.5
 Corroding cast iron 1.5 - 2.5
Asphalted cast iron 0.012
Galvanized iron 0.015
Smoothed cement 0.3
Ordinary concrete 0.3 - 3
Well planed wood 0.18 - 0.9
Ordinary wood 5

Material e (mm) e (inches)

Concrete 0.3 - 3.0 0.012 - 0.12
Cast Iron 0.26 0.010
Galvanized Iron 0.15 0.006
Asphalted Cast Iron 0.12 0.0048
Commercial or Welded Steel 0.045 0.0018
PVC, Glass, Other Drawn Tubing 0.0015 0.00006