Flow in pipes

Classification of fluid flow

• Uniform flow: If the flow velocity is the same magnitude and
direction at every point in the fluid it is said to be uniform.

• Non-uniform: If at a given instant, the velocity is not the same at

every point the flow is non-uniform.

• Steady: A steady flow is one in which the conditions (velocity,

pressure and cross-section) may differ from point to point but do not
change with time.
• Unsteady: If at any point in the fluid, the conditions change with time,
the flow is described as unsteady. (In practise there is always slight
variations in velocity and pressure, but if the average values are
constant, the flow is considered steady.

Combining these four classes we get four flows types

• Steady uniform flow. Conditions do not change with position in the

stream or with time. An example is the flow of water in a pipe of
constant diameter at constant velocity.
• Steady non-uniform flow. Conditions change from point to point in the
stream but do not change with time. An example is flow in a tapering pipe
with constant velocity at the inlet - velocity will change as you move along
the length of the pipe toward the exit.

• Unsteady uniform flow. At a given instant in time the conditions at every

point are the same, but will change with time. An example is a pipe of
constant diameter connected to a pump pumping at a constant rate which
is then switched off.

• Unsteady non-uniform flow. Every condition of the flow may change from
point to point and with time at every point. For example waves in a channel.
• Although in general all fluids flow three-dimensionally, with pressures and
velocities and other flow properties varying in all directions, in many cases
the greatest changes only occur in two directions or even only in one.

• Flow is one dimensional if the flow parameters (such as velocity, pressure,

depth etc.) at a given instant in time only vary in the direction of flow and
not across the cross-section. The flow may be unsteady, in this case the
parameter vary in time but still not across the cross-section.

• An example of one-dimensional flow is the flow in a pipe.

Development of
flow in pipe
Consider a fluid entering
a circular pipe at a
uniform velocity. Due to
the no-slip condition, the
fluid particles in the layer
in contact with the
surface of the pipe come
to a complete stop. The development of the velocity boundary layer in a pipe.
• This layer also causes the fluid particles in the adjacent layers to slow
down gradually as a result of friction. To make up for this velocity
reduction, the velocity of the fluid at the midsection of the pipe has to
increase to keep the mass flow rate through the pipe constant. As a
result, a velocity gradient develops along the pipe.

• The region of the flow in which the effects of the viscous shearing
forces caused by fluid viscosity are felt is called the velocity boundary
layer or just the boundary layer.
• The hypothetical boundary surface divides the flow in a pipe into two
regions: the boundary layer region, in which the viscous effects and the
velocity changes are significant, and the irrotational (core) flow region,
in which the frictional effects are negligible and the velocity remains
essentially constant in the radial direction.

• The region from the pipe inlet to the point at which the boundary layer
merges at the centerline is called the hydrodynamic entrance region,
and the length of this region is called the hydrodynamic entry length Lh.
• Flow in the entrance region is called hydrodynamically developing
flow. The region beyond the entrance region in which the velocity
profile is fully developed and remains unchanged is called the
hydrodynamically fully developed region.

• Hydrodynamically developed flow is equivalent to fully developed

flow when the fluid in the pipe is not heated or cooled since the fluid
temperature in this case remains essentially constant throughout.
• The velocity profile in the fully developed region is parabolic in
laminar flow and somewhat flatter (or fuller) in turbulent flow due to
eddy motion and more vigorous mixing in the radial direction.

• The shear stress at the pipe wall τw is related to the slope of the
velocity profile at the surface. The wall shear stress also remains
constant in the hydrodynamically fully developed region.

• Therefore, the pressure drop is higher in the entrance regions of a

pipe.
Laminar and Turbulent Flows
• When a liquid flowing in a pipe is observed carefully, it
will be seen that the pattern of flow becomes more
disturbed as the velocity of flow increases.
• A careful inspection of flow in a pipe reveals that the
fluid flow is streamlined at low velocities (laminar flow)
but turns chaotic as the velocity is increased above a
critical value (turbulent flow).
• The transition from laminar to turbulent flow does not

Candle smoke flow

occur suddenly; rather, it occurs over some region
• When flow is laminar, layers flow without mixing.

• When flow is turbulent, the layers mix, and significant velocities occur in
directions other than the overall direction of flow. Thus layers mix together
via eddies and swirls.

• It has two main causes. First, any obstruction or sharp corner, such as in a
faucet, creates turbulence by imparting velocities perpendicular to the flow.

• Second, high speeds cause turbulence. The drag between adjacent layers of
fluid and between the fluid and its surroundings can form swirls and eddies
if the speed is great enough.
Velocity Profile • The velocity profile of laminar flows remains
unchanged in the flow direction.

• There is no motion in the radial direction, and thus

the velocity component in the direction normal to
flow is everywhere zero.

• There is no acceleration since the flow is steady and

fully developed.

• The average velocity in fully developed laminar pipe

flow is one half of the maximum velocity u(r)=2vavg
• The velocity profile is very slowly changing in the core region of a turbulent

boundary layer, but very steep in the thin layer adjacent to the wall, resulting

in large velocity gradients at the wall surface. So it is no surprise that the wall

shear stress is much larger in turbulent flow than it is in laminar flow.

• The velocity profile of turbulent flow becomes nearly flat and thus the velocity

distribution becomes more uniform at very high velocity.

• The velocity profile in the fully developed region of turbulent flow is flatter

due to eddy motion and more vigorous mixing in the radial direction.
• The shear stress is much larger due to the turbulent fluctuations.

• Viscous dissipation caused by intense mixing and the turbulent eddies

convert part of the kinetic energy into frictional heating, as evidenced by a
slight rise in fluid temperature. The end result is a drop in velocity without
much pressure recovery, and the inlet loss is a measure of this irreversible
pressure drop.

• In summary, turbulent flow has higher velocity, more vigorous mixing, –

Higher τw, – Higher Friction, – Higher Δploss,
 Reynold’s number
• In a series of experiments, the British engineer Osborne Reynolds (1842–

1912) showed that the pattern of flow becomes more disturbed as the

velocity of flow increases by injecting a thin stream of dye into the fluid

and finding that it ran in a smooth stream in the direction of the flow.

• As the velocity of flow increased, he found that the smooth line of dye was

broken up until finally, at high velocities, the dye was rapidly mixed into

the disturbed flow of the surrounding fluid.

• From analysis, which was based on these observations, Reynolds concluded

that this instability of flow could be predicted in terms of the relative

magnitudes of the velocity and the viscous forces that act on the fluid.

• The instability which leads to disturbed flow, is governed by the ratio of the

kinetic (inertial) forces and the viscous forces in the fluid stream.

• The inertial force is proportional to the velocity pressure of the fluid ρv2 and

the viscous drag is proportional to µv/D where µ is viscosity and D is the

diameter of the pipe.

 Inertial forces
𝑅𝑒 = = 𝜌𝑣2D/μ𝑣 = 𝜌𝑣D/μ
Viscous forces

• Where Re is the Reynolds number.

• Reynolds number is a very important ratio in the study of fluid flow. As it is

a ratio, it is dimensionless so long as the units of measurements are
consistent. For flow in pipes:
• For Re < 2100 laminar flow,

• For 2100 < Re < 4000 transition

• For Re > 4000 turbulent flow.

Friction in Pipes
• In Bernouilli's equation the symbol hf was used to denote the energy
loss due to friction in the pipe.

• This loss of energy due to friction was shown, both theoretically and
experimentally, to be related to the Reynolds number for the flow.

• It has also been found to be proportional to the velocity pressure of

the fluid and to a factor related to the smoothness of the surface
over which the fluid is flowing
• If we define the wall friction in terms of velocity pressure of the fluid
flowing, we can write:

𝐹 𝑓𝜌𝑣2
=
𝐴 2

• where F is the friction force, A is the area over which the friction force acts,
ρ is the density of the fluid, v is the velocity of the fluid, and f is a
coefficient called the friction factor.

• The friction factor reaches a maximum when the flow becomes fully
turbulent.
• In laminar flow, the friction factor is a function of the Reynolds
number only and is independent of the roughness of the pipe surface.

• Unlike laminar flow, the friction factor in turbulent flow is a strong

function of surface roughness via the relative roughness ε/D, which is
the ratio of the mean height of roughness of the pipe to the pipe
diameter.

• If the Reynolds number and the roughness factor are known, then f
can be read off from the Moody graph
Friction factors in pipe flow (after Moody 1944)
• The roughness can be expressed in terms of a roughness ratio that is
defined as the ratio of average height of the projections, which make up
the "roughness" on the wall of the pipe, to the pipe diameter.

• This factor ε is then divided by the pipe diameter D to give the roughness
ratio to be used with the Moody graph.

• The question of relative roughness of the pipe, under some circumstances,

is difficult one to resolve.

• In most cases, reasonable accuracy can be obtained by applying relative

roughness factor for pipes and Moody graph.
Fanning equation
• Consider an energy balance over a differential length, dL, of a straight
horizontal pipe of diameter D,

Energy balance over a length of pipe.

• Consider the equilibrium of the element of fluid in the length dL. The total
force required to overcome friction drag must be supplied by a pressure
force giving rise to a pressure drop dP along the length dL.
• The pressure drop force is:
d𝑃 × 𝐴 = 𝑑𝑃 × 𝜋𝐷2/4

• The friction force is: velocity pressure x wall area of pipe

𝑓𝜌𝑣2
= × 𝜋𝐷 × 𝑑𝐿
2
• Therefore equating pressure drop force and friction force

𝜋𝐷2 𝑓𝜌𝑣2
𝑑𝑃 = × 𝜋𝐷 × 𝑑𝐿
4 2

𝑓𝜌𝑣2 𝑑𝐿
𝑑𝑃 = 4 ×
2 𝐷
• Integrating between L1 and L2, in which interval P goes from P1 to P2
we have:
∫ 𝑑𝑃 = ∫ 4(𝑓𝜌𝑣2/2) × 𝑑𝐿/𝐷
𝑃1 − 𝑃2 = (4𝑓𝜌𝑣2/2)(𝐿1 − 𝐿2)/𝐷

Δ𝑃𝑓 = 2𝑓𝜌𝑣2 𝐿ൗ𝐷 − Fanning Equation

• where L = L1 - L2 = length of pipe in which the pressure drop, ΔPf = P1

– P2 is the frictional pressure drop, and hf is the frictional loss of
energy.
 Δ𝑃𝑓
• From Bernoulli’s equation, friction loss hydraulic head hf is defined as ; thus
𝜌𝑔

2𝑓𝑣2𝐿
ℎ𝑓 =
𝑔𝐷

• The frictional head loss hf represents the additional height that the fluid needs
to be raised by a pump in order to overcome the frictional losses in the pipe.
The frictional head loss is caused by viscosity, and it is directly related to the
wall shear stress.

• Fanning Equation and frictional head loss equation are valid for both laminar
and turbulent flows in both circular and noncircular pipes.
• For low values of (Re), there appears to be a simple relationship
between f and (Re) independent of the roughness of the pipe. This is
perhaps not surprising, because in laminar flow there is assumed to
be a stationary boundary layer at the wall. In this is stationary
boundary, there would be no liquid movement over any roughness
that might appear at the wall.

• Therefore, the friction factor f in laminar flow can be predicted

theoretically from the Hagen-Poiseuille equation, which gives:
𝑓 = 16/𝑅𝑒
• In a similar way, theoretical work has led to equations which fit other
regions of the experimental curve, for example the Blasius equation
which applies to smooth pipes in the range 3000 < (Re) < 100,000 and
in which

0.316 −0.25
𝑓= 𝑅𝑒
4
• In the turbulent region, there are a number of curves. It would be
expected that in this region, the smooth pipes would give rise to
lower friction factors than rough ones.
Flow Measurement
• Flow meters and velocity measurement A major application area of fluid mechanics is the determination of the flow rate of fluids, and numerous
devices have been developed over the years for the purpose of flow metering. Flowmeters range widely in their level of sophistication, size, cost,
accuracy, versatility, capacity, pressure drop, and the operating principle.

• Some flowmeters measure the flow rate directly by discharging and recharging a measuring chamber of known volume continuously and keeping
track of the number of discharges per unit time. But most flowmeters measure the flow rate indirectly—they measure the average velocity V or a
quantity that is related to average velocity such as pressure and drag, and determine the volume flow rate V̇ from
𝑣 = 𝑣𝐴𝑐

• where Ac is the cross-sectional area of flow. Therefore, measuring the flow rate is usually done by measuring flow velocity, and most flowmeters are
simply velocimeters used for the purpose of metering flow.

• Measure
• Velocity (instantaneous)

• Flow rate (~integral)

• Primitive to complex
• Bucket and watch
• Particle Image Velocimetry (laser sheet à full planar velocity field.

• Many measurement types.

• Operate on various physical principles