FRICTION LOSS IN PIPES LABORATORY

ASSIGNMENT

Student number: 18008782

Module code: KB4027

Module tutor name: Dr Jerry Edge

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 CONTENT

INTRODUCTION PAGE 3

APPARATUS PAGE 3

METHOD PAGE 4

RESULTS PAGE 5

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSSION PAGE 6

RISK ASSESMENT PAGE 9

REFERENCES PAGE 9

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 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this laboratory work was to study change in the laws of resistance for laminar to
turbulent flow and to find the Reynolds number. There are two types of flows that are going to be
discussed: higher flow and lower flow. Risk assessment was carried out of a practical laboratory
session.

APPARATUS

Pressure Header
Gauge Tank

Hand
Pump

Water
Manometer Measuring
Vessel

Test
Pipe Hydraulic
Bench

Outlet
Pipe

 Stop watch was used to time the collection of a suitable quantity of water.
 Temperature of the water was measured.
 Pressure Gauge (Burdon) was used for the Higher Flow experiment.
 Water manometer ( U-tube) was used for the Lower flow experiment.

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 METHOD

There are two types of methods in this experiment: Lower flow rates and Higher flow rates.

Lower flow rates :

1.Mechanism was connected by the technician to the apparatus header tank which supplied water
through the horizontal pipe.

2.The needle valve was opened fully and carefully adjusted to give a differential head of around 450
mm on the manometer.

3.Given stopwatch and measuring vessels were used to spot the quantity of water from the outlet
pipe. During this assessment the temperature of the water was measured and recorded.

4.The needle valve was used to reduce the differential in roughly 30 mm steps and fifteen sets of
results were done. Last results were taken at 30 mm. During each step the differential, the flow rate
and the water temperature was recorded.

Higher flow rates :

1. Mechanism was connected by the technician to the hydraulic bench which provided a source and
sink for the water flow through the horizontal pipe.

2.The values was recorded when needle valve was fully open and the hydraulic bench was adjusted
to supply valve to get a reading of 2000 mm on the bourdon gauge.

3. Given stopwatch and measuring vessels were used to spot the quantity of water from the outlet
pipe. During this assessment the temperature of the water was measured and recorded.

4.During every step the differential, the flow rate and the water temperature was recorded. The
needle valve was used to reduce the differential in roughly 200 mm steps and gave nine sets of
results. We stopped taking results at 250 ml.

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 RESULTS

1.For the lower flow results the head differences were calculated: (ℎ1 − ℎ2)

2.For the higher flow results readings were taken off the pressure gauge.

3.Volume flow was calculated for each set of the results and after that velocity was found.

4.Water viscosity was found using our recorded temperature according to values given in Table.

(ℎ1−ℎ2)
5. Hydraulic gradient i was calculated using: 𝑖 = 𝑙
(l-distance between pressure tappings)

𝑖𝑑2𝑔
6.The Darcy equation was used to find the friction factor: 𝜆 =
𝑣2

𝜌𝑣𝑑
7.The following equation was used to find Reynolds number (Re): 𝑅𝑒 = .
𝜇

(Calculations shown in page 6)

Lower flows
H1(mm) H2(mm) Volume(m³) Time(s) (H1-H2)(mm)Temperature(°C) volume flow(m3/s) velocity(m/s) hydraulic gradient friction coefficient ( λ) Re
480 30 0.00018 19 450 19 0.00000944 1.336 0.859 0.028312735 3895.52242
464 48 0.00019 18 416 19 0.00001056 1.494 0.79389313 0.020933625 4355.86899
456 66 0.00018 21 390 19 0.00000857 1.213 0.744274809 0.029762643 3537.09663
434 82 0.0002 20 352 19 0.00001000 1.415 0.671755725 0.019735856 4126.61273
426 93 0.00021 24 333 19 0.00000875 1.238 0.635496183 0.024386048 3610.78614
410 114 0.0002 24 296 19 0.00000833 1.180 0.564885496 0.023898327 3438.84394
398 133 0.00021 27 265 19 0.00000778 1.101 0.505725191 0.024561117 3209.58768
386 146 0.0002 28 240 19 0.00000714 1.011 0.458015267 0.02637428 2947.58052
372 164 0.00018 29 208 19 0.00000621 0.879 0.396946565 0.03027106 2561.34583
360 180 0.0002 35 180 19 0.00000571 0.809 0.34351145 0.03090736 2358.06442
347 196 0.00021 42 151 19 0.00000500 0.708 0.288167939 0.033864935 2063.30637
332 214 0.00019 49 118 19 0.00000388 0.54883949 0.22519084 0.044002796 1600.11514
320 230 0.00011 38 90 19 0.00000408 0.577 0.171755725 0.030322666 1683.40234
305 248 0.00011 58 57 19 0.00000354 0.500 0.108778626 0.025566364 1458.99333
292 262 0.0006 51 30 19 0.00000299 0.423 0.057251908 0.018792323 1234.58432

higher flows
Volume(m³) Time(s) Δh(mm) Temperature(°C) volume flow (m3/s) Velocity(m/s) hydraulic gradient Friction coefficient ( λ) Re
0.0003 19.53 2000 20 0.0000154 2.174 3.817 0.047523156 6496.724
0.0003 20.07 1800 20 0.0000149 2.116 3.435 0.045168747 6321.924
0.0003 23.06 1600 20 0.0000130 1.841 3.053 0.05300409 5502.212
0.0003 24.75 1400 20 0.0000121 1.716 2.672 0.053425579 5126.505
0.0003 27.03 1200 20 0.0000111 1.571 2.290 0.054619049 4694.081
0.0003 28.77 1000 20 0.0000104 1.476 1.908 0.051564465 4410.185
0.0003 29.78 750 20 0.0000101 1.426 1.431 0.041436345 4260.612
0.0003 45.69 500 20 0.0000066 0.929 0.954 0.065025412 2776.997
0.00015 200.07 250 20 0.0000007 0.106 0.477 2.49364564 317.0915

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Page 6 of 9
 RESULTS ANALYSIS

Lower flow results analysis:

Lower flows
1

0.9 0.859
0.794
0.8 0.744
0.672
0.7 0.635
hyraulic gradient

0.565
0.6
0.506
0.5 0.458
0.397
0.4 0.344

0.3 0.225 0.228

0.172
0.2
0.109
0.1 0.057 Transition point
0
0.423 0.5 0.577 0.549 0.708 0.809 0.879 1.011 1.101 1.18 1.238 1.415 1.213 1.494 1.336
Velocity (m/s)

Higher flow results analysis:

Higher flow
4.5
3.817
4
3.435
3.5
3.053
Hydraulic gradient

3 2.672

2.5 2.29
1.908
2
1.431
1.5
0.954
1
0.477
0.5

0
0.106 0.929 1.426 1.476 1.571 1.716 1.841 2.116 2.174
Velocity(m/s)

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 DISCUSSION

From lower flow results a distinct transition can be seen. The flow of a viscous fluid (as it shown in
table) may be laminar or turbulent. The criteria for the breakdown of laminar motion and the
transition into turbulent flow is the critical value which is represented by Reynolds number. If
Reynolds number is <2000 it is laminar flow , if 2000<x<4000 it is in transition and if Re>4000 it is
turbulent flow. In the first set of data on the moody chart it was shown that the flow was laminar up
to a Re=1600.11. The laminar flow results were quite accurate. However, in the chart transition and
turbulent flow is mixed. Due to that, the data recorded for that stage did not agree with what results
were expected to be. It was noticed that collected results and values do not match accurately due to
the errors that may have appeared during laboratory work. One of the errors were human error,
taking measurements, precision and accuracy may not have been as correct as the information that
analysis is based on. The volume of water could have been different because of the human reaction
time in removing the measuring vessel away from pipe. Also, the time measured might be wrong
due to the reaction of human.

CONCLUSIONS

During this experiment information was conducted to study the resistance to flow in a pipe and to
establish `Reynolds number. Results were close to the expected numbers.

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 RISK ASSESMENT

REFERENCES
1.Tecquipment academia (no date),Friction loss in pipe (description).
Available at: https://www.tecquipment.com/friction-loss-in-a-pipe
(accessed at 27/12/2018)
2.University of Toronto (no date), Writing Advice.
Available at: http://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/types-of-writing/lab-report/
(accessed at 19/12/2018)

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