Venturi Flow Lab

Ryan McCarthy
Section #10

9/27/10

Abstract:
In this lab we will be examining a venture using several manometers in succession at known
distances from each other and know diameters at each manometer points. From the given data
and the data we record we will find the pressure differentials between each point and the
velocities from Bernoulli’s equation for ideal flow. By measuring at different flow rates we can
calculate discharge coefficient performance for flow metering.

Tasks
Task 1:
In task one we are asked to calculate manometer height differentials and convert to ideal inlet
velocity for each manometer channel. Using Bernoulli’s equation for ideal flow to find the
1 g
pressures at each venturi point PT 1 = ρ v 2 + p1 + ρ z 1 where gc = 1 kg m/N sec2, ρ=998
2 gc gc
3 2 2
kg/m , g=9.91 m/sec and p= 101,325 N/m v=0 at steady state in the manometer. So to get the
pressure at the base of the manometer we use PT1=p1+(rho)gz1. From there we can find the
pressures of each manometer.

Static Pressures (in pa)at the base of the manometers

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11
242mm 234mm 158mm 4mm 51mm 115mm 154mm 174mm 191mm 202mm 207mm
2369.3 2290.9 1546.9 39.2 499.3 1125.9 1507.7 1703.5 1870.0 1977.7 2026.6

To find the inlet velocity at p1 we use the inlet static pressure is 2369.3pa. So we use modified
1 2
equation of Bernoulli’s equation to find the inlet velocity. p− pi = ρ v so we find the inlet
2
velocity to be 14.08 m/s

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 P7 P8 P9 P10 P11
14.08 14.08 14.14 14.24 14.21 14.17 14.14 14.13 14.11 14.11 14.10 m/s
m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s

Task 2:
In task two we are required to calculate the ideal mass flow rate and the ideal inlet Reynolds
ρV D H
number. The equation for Reynolds number is ℜ= where μ is the dynamic viscosity
μ
(water’s μ=1.003 e-3) . DH= the hydraulic diameter, V is the mean fluid velocity and ρ is the
 density (water’s ρ=998 kg/m3). Substituting the velocities and diameters the Reynolds numbers
for each selection of the pipe are as follows.
Reynolds numbers for each section (w/ diameter of the section)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
26mm 23mm 18.4m 16mm 16.8m 18.47m 20.16m 21.84m 23.53m 25.24m 26mm
m m m m m m m
2.11e+ 2.02e+ 1.67e+4 1.58e+ 1.51e+4 1.13e+4 1.15e+3 1.02e+4 8.08e+3 7.98e+3 6.47e+
4 4 4 3

π 2
The mass flow rates are calculated from the equation m=ρ A flow v x where A= D . Using our
4
pervious information we can calculate the mass flow rates at each section like we did with the
Reynolds numbers.

Mass flow rates for each section (w/ areas of each section)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
530.9 422.7 265.9 201.1 221.7 267.9 319.2 374.6 434.8 500.3 530.9
mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2 mm2
7.46 kg/s 5.94 3.78 2.86 3.14 3.79 4.50 5.28 6.12 7.05 7.47
e-area
.2042 .1822 .1445 .1257 .1319 .1451 .1583 .1715 .1848 .1982 .2042
e-mass
flow(kg/s)
0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002

Task 3:

The actual mass flow rates can be determined from our data. Using the amount of weight we
used to displace and the time recorded we can calculate the mass flow rate. However, there
was a lever involved so the weights used are not directly being displaced, rather a percentage
of it. The lever ratio is 3/1, so the weight is 1/3 the actual weight being displaced. All the cases
use 2000grams (6000grams of water displaced). Using the time it took from our stop watch we
can calculate the mass flow rate by taking the mass of the water displaced (weight*3)/time.

2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g 2000g
13.87s 14.5s 17.53s 18.6s 19.46s 26.03s 25.44s 28.63s 36.28s 45.31s 55.94s
.4325 .4138 .3423 .3226 .3083 .2305 .2358 .2096 .1654 .1324 .1073

This data was retrieved from us slowly turning the inlet throttle down, the first data point on
the right is our first reading.
Using the errors from the stop watch of etime = 0.5 seconds, lever ratio~0.0527 of and e mass
of 1 gram (0.001 kg) the e-massflow would be .001*.0527/.5 or e-massflow=0.0001054 kg/s

Task 4:
In task four we are asked to calculate the coefficient curves versus axial position of the
manometer channels. In figure 2 below we can see this plot. The cases look very similar to each
other were as we turn the inlet throttle down the mass flow rates decrease along with the
discharge coefficient. To calculate the errors from the discharge coefficient we are to use the
formula mass flow ratios of actual/Ideal. Using data from pervious tasks we find that emass-
actual = 0.0001054 kg/s and the emass ideal = 0.002 so the eCD=0.0001054/0.002 eCD=0.0527.
In this case all manometers have the same error.

Task 5:
In figure 3 there is a plot of Reynolds number vs CD. However, there must have been an error
with the data because the curve is sporadic and has little trend to it. When compared to a
known venture plot cited in a Fluid mechanics text there is almost no resemblance. I found a
similar plot on me.utexas.edu that I could use as a physical comparison on my report and is
represented in figure 4.

Figures:
Figure 1:
This figure shows the relation of each section of the manometers to the venturi. The venture
graph shows the distance between two succeeding manometers in both x and y direction.
Figure 2:
in this plot we have graphed distance through the venture (same x axis as figure 1) by the
discharge coefficient (CD) Each case gets its own color and stars where the manometer reads
occurred. The cases seem to have very similar trends with one another, however, with
lowering the mass flow rate the discharge coefficient seems to drop universally.
Figure 3:
In this figure we plot Reynolds number for each case by the discharge coefficient. The data is a
bit sporadic however; I believe the data is supposed to be of parabolic shape do to the venturi’s
nature

Figure 4:
this is my referance for comparesion of my reynolds vs cd plot
Referances:
Fluid mechanics text
Lab manual
me.utexas.edu