Lab Experiment 1 - Friction Pipe

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I – EXPERIMENT 1
Theory
When a gas or a liquid flows through a pipe, the flow of fluid through a pipe is resisted by
viscous shear stresses within the fluid and the turbulence that occurs along the internal pipe
wall. Due to this there will be a loss of pressure in the fluid, because energy is required to
overcome the viscous or frictional forces exerted by the walls of the pipe on the moving fluid. In
addition to the energy lost due to frictional forces, there will be a loss in energy when the fluid
flows through fittings, such as valves, elbows, contractions and expansions. This loss in
pressure is mainly due to the local flow separation as it moves through such fittings. The
pressure loss in pipe flows is commonly referred to as head loss. The frictional losses are
mainly caused in a straight pipe, friction loss induced in fittings, such as bends, couplings,
valves, or transitions in hose or pipe accounts for minor losses. The frictional losses are referred
to as major losses (hf) while losses through fittings, etc, are called minor losses (hm).
Together they make up the total head losses (h) for pipe flows.
Types of fittings
In practice, loss in a pipe flow comes into picture in cases like calculation of rate of flow
in the pipes connecting two reservoirs at different levels or to calculate the additional head
required to double the rate of flow along an existing pipeline. These pipe losses are dependent
on number of factors like viscosity of the fluid, the size of the internal pipe diameter, the internal
roughness of the inner surface of the pipe, the change in elevation between the ends of the
pipe, material of the pipe and the length of the pipe along which the fluid travels.
Pipes with smooth surface does not account for larger friction loss, whereas pipes with
less smooth walls such as concrete, cast iron and steel fluid requires large energy to overcome
the friction induced in a pipe due to the viscosity of liquid. Rougher the inner wall of the pipe,
more will be the pressure loss due to friction.
Internal surface of smooth and rough pipes
Friction loss in pipe
The friction loss in a uniform, straight sections of pipe, known as "major loss", is caused
by the effects of viscosity, the movement of fluid molecules against each other or against the
(possibly rough) wall of the pipe. Here, it is greatly affected by whether the flow is laminar or
turbulent.
Laminar Flow:It occurs when the fluid flows in parallel layers without adjacent mixing between
the layers. In this type of flow there are neither eddies nor cross currents, with fast flow over the
center part of the pipe and no movement near the pipe surface. The roughness of the pipe
surface influences neither the fluid flow nor the friction loss. For laminar flow Reynolds’s number
(Re) < 2100.
Turbulent Flow:It occurs when the liquid is moving fast with mixing between layers. The speed
of the fluid at a point continuously undergoes changes in both magnitude and direction. For
turbulent flow Reynolds's number 2100 < Re < 4000
Transitional flow: is a mixture of laminar and turbulent flow, with turbulence flow in the center
of the pipe and laminar flow near the edges of the pipe. Each of these flows behaves in different
manners in terms of their frictional energy loss while flowing and have different equations that
predict their behaviour. For transitional flow Reynolds's number Re > 4000.
It is useful to characterize that roughness as the ratio of the roughness height k to the pipe
diameter D, the "relative roughness". Three sub-domains pertain to turbulent flow:
 In the smooth pipe domain, friction loss is relatively insensitive to roughness.
 In the rough pipe domain, friction loss is dominated by the relative roughness and is
insensitive to Reynolds number.
 In the transition domain, friction loss is sensitive to both.
The Darcy Equation is a theoretical equation that predicts the frictional energy loss in a
pipe based on the velocity of the fluid and the resistance due to friction. It is used almost
exclusively to calculate head loss due to friction in turbulent flow.
Where:
hf = Friction head loss
f = Darcy resistance factor
L = Length of the pipe
D = Pipe diameter
v = Mean velocity
g = acceleration due to gravity
In turbulent flow, the friction factor, f depends upon the Reynolds number and on the
relative roughness of the pipe, k/D, where, k is the roughness parameter and D is the inner
diameter of the pipe. When k is very small compared to the pipe diameter D i.e., k/D > 0, f
depends only on Re. When k/D is a significant value, at low Re, the flow can be considered as
in smooth regime (no effect of roughness). As Re increases, the flow becomes transitionally
rough, called as transition regime in which the friction factor rises above the smooth value and is
a function of both k and Re and Re increases more and more the flow eventually reaches a fully
rough regime in which f is independent of Re. For design purposes, the frictional characteristics
of round pipes, both smooth and rough are summarized by the friction factor chart, which is a
log-log of fanning friction factor vs Re which is based on Moody's chart.
Self Evaluation
Quiz
It should be relative
roughness and Reynolds
number
ASSIGNMENT
1. Define major loss in pipe?
The friction loss In a uniform, straight sections of pipe, known as "major loss", is caused
by the effects of viscosity, the movement of fluid molecules against each other or against the
(possibly rough) wall of the pipe. Here, it is greatly affected by whether the flow
is laminar (Re < 2000) or turbulent (Re > 4000)
Pressure loss is proportional to L/D ratio and velocity head. For low velocities, where the
flow is laminar, friction loss is caused by viscous shearing between streamlines near the wall of
the pipe and the friction factor (f) is well defined. For high velocities where the flow is fully
turbulent, friction loss is caused by water particles coming into contact with irregularities in the
surface of the pipe and friction factor itself is a function of surface roughness.
2. Define friction factor in the pipe?
The Darcy-Weisbach equation, for calculating the friction loss in a pipe, uses a
dimensionless value known as the friction factor (also known as the Darcy-Weisbach friction
factor or the Moody friction factor) and it is four times larger than the Fanning friction factor.
The friction factor or Moody chart is the plot of the relative roughness (e/D) of a pipe
against the Reynold's number. It is also representing the loss of pressure of a fluid in a pipe due
to the interactions in between the fluid and the pipe.

Lab Experiment 1 - Friction Pipe

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LABORATORY I – EXPERIMENT 1

Friction loss in pipe

2. Define friction factor in the pipe?

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