SUMMARY

The aims of this experiment were to: To study how the pressure drop in a pipe varies with the rate of flow To observe the transition from laminar to turbulent flow To compare the measured values of the friction factor with published charts

The experiment carried out has demonstrated that flow rate decreases as pressure in the pipe decreases. It also showed that the laminar region occurs in the low flow region. As the flow rate(high flow) was increased ,turbulent flow was observed. The transition occurred in between Re value range of 2000<Re<105 as pressure drop increased, friction decreased, flow rate increased and velocity decreased.

APPARATUS
Water is supplied to a 3.0 mm internal diameter tube of length 500mm from either: a) A header tank (small flow rates) b) The pump of the hydraulic bench (larger flow rates) The pressure drop along the tube is measured using either an air-over-water manometer or a hand-held pressure meter. The flow rate is controlled by a needle valve at the exit from the tube and is measured by timing the discharge of water into a measuring cylinder. The hydraulic bench contains a reservoir of water, the sump which supplies the experimental equipment mounted on it, which can be used to measure the water flow rate. A pump inside the bench draws water up from the sump and delivers it to the experiment. A stopwatch was also required to measure the flow rate of water. A measuring cylinder was used to collect the water flowing out. The temperature of the water was measured using a calibrated thermometer.

CALCULATIONS
The friction factor, f, was to be calculated from the observed pressure readings. The pressure drop along the pipe is measured using a manometer and is related to the difference in levels of the fluid in the two legs of the manometer (z) by:

The shear stress, , is calculated by rearranging the force balancing equation:

The friction factor is thus defined as:

where d is diameter, l is length, u is the mean fluid velocity and p is the fluid density

The Reynolds Number is a dimensionless number which is directly related to the critical velocity of flow. The flow is usually laminar if Re is less than 1800 and is likely to be turbulent if Re is greater than 2300. The Reynolds Numbers is defined as:
Where is fluid viscosity

For steady laminar flow in a straight circular pipe the friction factor can be shown to be inversely proportional to the Reynolds Number:

For the turbulent region, with 2000 suggests that:

Re 10

the theoretical solution for smooth pipes by Blasius

The results were represented in a tabular form below: Table 1 Low flow using manometer. Manometer Levels Left (mm) 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 Right (mm) 450 440 430 420 410 400 390 380 370 360 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 Pressure Drop (mm H20) Water Volume V(ml) 105 95 90 95 95 105 100 100 100 100 Time (s) Flow Rate Q (ml/s)/(water vol/time) 5.56 5.14 5.00 4.97 4.71 4.24 3.26 2.48 1.67 0.783

18.87 18.50 18.00 19.12 20.19 24.75 30.69 40.37 59.75 127.69

Table 2 High Flow using Pressure Meter Pressure Drop (cm H20) 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 Water Volume V(ml) 200 205 205 210 205 205 205 205 210 205 Time Interval (s) 38.37 26.56 21.19 17.94 15.75 14.31 13.12 11.81 11.37 10.75 Flow Rate Q (ml/s) 5.21 7.71 9.67 11.71 13.02 14.33 15.63 17.36 18.47 19.07

A graph of pressure drop against the volumetric flow rate Q, using the results for both high flow and low flow was plotted:

Graph of pressure drop against flow rate

250 200

150 Pressure drop/(cm h20) 100

high flow manometer low flow manometer

50

0 0 5 10 15 20 25

Flow rate/(ml/s)

The pressure drop for low flow manometer was measured in mm and has been converted into cm so that the graph can accommodate both sets of readings. From the graph below, it can be seen that pressure increases non- linearly with flow rate. The flow velocity and Re for all readings are to be calculated. Flow rate (ml/s) has already been found. It should be converted into m3/s and then divide it by the cross sectional area of the pipe. Diameter of pipe =3mm Area calculated: d2/4=(0.003)2/4 = 7.06x10-6 m2 The value of Re can be calculated by using the formula mentioned above .We already know the density of the water and each reading of velocity and the diameter of the pipe is constant. Fluid viscosity can be read off from the table. The temperature for the High Flow readings was 26.0 C and the temperature of the Low Flow was 24.0 C. We can look at the table at the end of the handout and get the Fluid viscosity by rearranging the equation. Below is a new table converting the volumes to m3 and flow rates and the calculated velocities as well as the calculated Re values. Flow Rate= Water Volume/time interval

(u is the mean fluid velocity ,p is the fluid density(1000) ,(from table since temp is 24 c is fluid viscosity , d is diameter)

= pv=1000 x 0.911 x 10-6 =9.11 x 10-4

Table 3 Low flow using manometer. Water Volume V(m3) 0.000105 0.000095 0.000090 0.000095 0.000095 0.000105 0.000100 0.000100 0.000100 0.000100 Area A(m2) 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 Flow Rate (m3/s) 5.56 x 10-6 5.14 x 10-6 5.00 x 10-6 4.97 x 10-6 4.77 x 10-6 4.24 x 10-6 3.26 x 10-6 2.48 x 10-6 1.67 x 10-6 7.83 x 10-7 Flow Velocity V(m/s) 0.79 0.72 0.71 0.70 0.68 0.60 0.46 0.35 0.24 0.11 Re

2602 2371 2338 2305 2239 1976 1515 1153 790 362

Table 4 High flow using manometer.

= pv=1000x (o.873x10-6) =8.73x 10-4

Water Volume V(m3) 0.000200 0.000205 0.000205 0.000210 0.000205 0.000205 0.000205 0.000205 0.000210 0.000205 Area A(m2) 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 7.06x10-6 Flow Rate (m3/s) 5.21x10-6 7.72x10-6 9.67x10-6 1.17x 10-5 1.15x10-5 1.43x10-5 1.56x10-5 1.74x10-5 1.85x10-5 1.91x10-5 Flow Velocity V(m/s) 0.74 1.09 1.37 1.66 1.63 2.03 2.21 2.46 2.62 2.71 Re 2543 3746 4708 5704 5601 6976 7595 8454 9003 9313

To calculate the f from the pressured readings we can just use the two equations Linking f, Re and the two different types of flow. The formulas are given above. Below is a table featuring the Re numbers and the corresponding f values. Low flow Re 2602 2371 2338 2305 2239 1976 1515 1153 790 362 F 0.01105 0.01132 0.01136 0.01140 0.01148 0.00809 0.01056 0.01389 0.02025 0.04419 high flow Re 2543 3746 4708 5704 5601 6976 7595 8454 9003 9313 F 0.01112 0.01009 0.00953 0.00909 0.00913 0.00864 0.00846 0.00824 0.00811 0.00804

Friction factor against flow rate

0.05 0.045 0.04 0.035 0.03 friction rate 0.025 0.02 0.015 0.01 0.005 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 flow rate(ml/s) Series1 Series2

We were then asked to plot logs of p against Re: One important thing was that both tables had different readings units. Low flow table used mm H20 for the pressure drop and high flow table used cm H20. So I converted both to Cm H20 for convenience.

250

Graph of pressure drop against Re values

200 Pressure Drop/ cm H20

150 low flow manometer high flow manometer

100

50

0 0 2000 4000 Re values 6000 8000 10000

DISCUSSION
Generally, as the pressure drop decreases the flow rate also decreases because of low pressure means low forces so water cannot travel at high speeds without a significant increase in force. According to the table and the graph, as the flow rate increases the friction factor decreases.This observation was also proven by the calculations using the formula. Most of the High and Low flow readings towards the end correspond with the relationship because the friction factor then decreases at a slower rate as compared to the initial values. For the low flow experiment, the Re values were roughly 500 Re 2000. And for the high flow experiment, the Re values were roughly 2000 Re 10000. The discrepancies could be due to experimental errors, or the faulty readings. Another reason could be due to errors in measuring the flow rate (stop watch timing). According to the graph, as pressure drop increases the Re values also increase. As pressure drop reaches high levels the graph shows that Reynolds number also increases at a higher rate. The different regions in the graph correspond to the different flows used in the experiment as well as the different friction factors which lead to different Re values. As we already know the laminar flow is inversely proportional to Reynolds number. Values lower than 2000 for Re means that laminar flow is taking place. The graph shows that in the laminar region the line is straight without any fluctuations. The flow rate is then directly proportional to the pressure drop. Turbulent region occurs when values of Re are above the 2000 mark. It is directly related to the friction factor and the graph shows that the line is increasing at different rates at different regions with many fluctuations. This is due to significantly contrasting friction factor values and occurs at high pressure drops. The relationship is the same between flow rate and pressure drop but with many irregularities.

CONCLUSION
Overall the experiment was a very successful one with our experimental values coming close to the theoretical values. So far we have established: Flow rate is directly proportional to the pressure drop, more so with low flow Flow velocity generally decreases with flow rate due to force reduction Reynolds number also decreases with decreasing flow rates Friction factor generally increases with decreasing Re values due to their inverse relationship Low flow experiment shows higher friction factor values compared to high flow experiment due to lower Re values. Pipe roughness and area corresponds to higher friction factors, hindering flow Water viscosity decreases with increasing temperature, thus giving higher Re values according to the formula High flow generally corresponded to higher Re values