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Chapter 6 : Principles of Physical Similarity and Dimensional Analysis

Lecture 19 :

Example

Consider pressure drop in a tube of length , hydraulic diameter d, surface roughness Î, with fluid of density ρ
and viscosity μ moving with average velocity ν

This can be expressed as

f (DP, U, d, , Î, ρ, μ) = 0

Now m=7 since the phenomenon involves 7 independent parameters.

We select ρ, U, d as repeating variables (so that all 3 dimensions are represented)

Now 4 π (7 - 3) parameters are determined as

Now basic units

All Π parameters ® M0 L0 T0

The above four equations yield

a1= -1; b1 = - 2; c1= 0

a2= -1; b2 = - 1; c2= -1
a3= 0; b3 = 0; c3= -1
a4= 0; b4 = 0; c4= -1

Thus writing

implies

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Objectives_template http://www.nptel.ac.in/courses/112104118/lecture-19/hyperlink/exampl...

Therefore,

is called relative roughness

Similarly, other sets of Π parameters can be chosen to describe the phenomena. Thus though it does not
give the actual relationship, but it puts the data in a compact form

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