PC-Based Teaching Tools for Fluid Mechanics

S. U. Rahman*, N. M. Tukur and I. A. Khan

Department of Chemical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals,
Dhahran-31261, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract
In this work an interactive teaching tool in the form of virtual fluid mechanics laboratory
has been developed. This lab consists of four experiments dealing with losses in piping
systems, flow meters, packed and fluidized beds. The labs can be run on any PC running a
32-bit operating system and could be made available through Internet. With the ability to
vary different parameters in the experiments, students can develop an intuitive sense of
cause-and-effect.

Keywords
Virtual laboratory, Fluid Mechanics, Engineering education

INTRODUCTION
The advancement in the fields of computers and information technology have influenced
every sphere of human life, education and training are no exception. As the
microcomputer gained popularity, a plethora of computer programs have appeared to help
teachers educate students from kindergarten to postgraduate schools. These computer
programs, often termed as “teaching tools”, are commercially available either with
textbooks or as independent products. Virtual laboratory is relatively a newer concept,
which essentially is a computer program that allows students to run simulated
experiments.

The benefit of a virtual lab as a teaching tool is evident. The installation, running and
maintenance cost of chemical engineering teaching laboratory are usually high. Once a
real experiment is installed, it is difficult to modify it. It limits the students to performing
experiments within a narrow range of parameters. In addition, experiment running time is
too long to repeat a run or to vary parameters in a bigger range. A simulated laboratory
removes these difficulties allowing students to perform virtual experiments effortlessly on
a microcomputer. In fact, one can create situations, which are impossible in real life but
are pedagogically important.

Once a virtual laboratory is installed on a website, more students can benefit. Students can
perform experiments from any location and at any time. The ease of running allows them
to repeat an experiment with varying parameters, exploring what would happen under
different scenarios. Readily available multimedia based help enhances the basic
understanding of the subject. The students can learn the basic concepts without getting

*
Coressponding author (E-mail: srahman@kfupm.edu.sa )

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lost into performing details of a real experiment. A virtual laboratory will prove useful for
students, those who have access to a real laboratory and those who do not. Virtual labs
provide students with the means to use laboratories on a 24-hour basis. They also help to
overcome as well, experiment-related hazards and safety concerns and therefore could be
used for practicing before running actual experiment.

Besides, rarely are traditional laboratories truly interactive. A student conducts a series of
pre-planned experiments and heads home to perform the analysis. This experience does
not leave the students with an intuitive feel for the nature of the process. These
shortcomings can be overcome through proper use of computer-based experiments.

Some prototype virtual laboratories are already opened to users via the Internet e.g., the
physics virtual lab at the University of Oregon [1], and the oscilloscope experiment at the
Electrical Engineering Department of the National University of Singapore [2], among
others. The Centre for Water Research, Department of Environmental Engineering at the
University of Western Australia has a virtual lab for Fluid Mechanics [3], where students
conduct experiments and write their reports online.

In the chemical engineering discipline, efforts have been made in this direction. The
chemical engineering department at John Hopkins University has a lab at their website [4]
where students are trained in virtual experimentations. A number of chemical engineering
virtual experiments have also been created by the Purdue University [5-11]. Additionally,
a host of computer-based process simulation packages (e.g. Aspen plus, Pro Vision,
HYSYS) are now commonplace in most modern Chemical Engineering curriculum,
although these software were not designed as teaching aids.

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE?

We have created a PC-based teaching tool for Virtual Fluid Mechanics Laboratory.
Presently, it consists of four important experiments of process fluid mechanics currently
taught in one of the laboratory courses at KFUPM. The experiments were written in
Microsoft Visual Studio version 6.0, and the multimedia based help files were developed
using macromedia flash 5.0. The experiments can be run on any PC with a 32-bit
operating system (e.g. Windows Me, Windows 98 or 95, Windows NT) with a display
capability of at least 256 colors.

The first experiment is on losses in piping systems. In this experiment, pressure loss
measurements are carried out as a function of flowrate on seven (7) pipe components
namely;Straight Pipe, Sudden Expansion, Sudden Contraction, Standard Elbow Bend, 90o
Mitre Bend, Globe Valve, and Gate Valve.

The second experiment has as its objective the study of some of the more common flow
meters, in particular, Pitot Tube, Venturimeter, and Orifice plate.

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While the third and fourth experiments deal with flow through packed and fluidized beds
respectively. The main objective is to investigate the relationship between flowrate and
the pressure drop through the beds.

[3] EXPERIMENTS

Once the software is installed, the option window appears upon clicking the software link.
It allows one to select among six (6) laboratories which to run. Figure 1 is a snap shot of
the option window. Once a specific lab is selected, the main window of that particular lab
shows up. The main window of each of the lab is where virtual experiments are run. The
main windows are designed to be highly interactive, with enhanced multimedia features.

Figure 1: The Virtual Lab Interface

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EXPERIMENT # 1: LOSSES IN PIPING SYSTEMS

One of the most common problem in fluid mechanics is the estimation of pressure loss.
Pipe losses in a piping system result from a number of system characteristics, which
include among others; pipe friction, changes in direction of flow, obstructions in flow
path, and sudden or gradual changes in the cross-section and shape of flow path. In this
experiment, pressure loss measurements are made as a function of flowrate on seven (7)
pipe components namely;straight pipe, sudden expansion, sudden contraction, standard
elbow bend, 90o mitre Bend, globe valve, and gate valve.

The display in Figure 2 shows the main window when the losses in piping systems
experiment is selected. One can then select the component of interest to run..

Figure 2: Losses in piping Systems Main Window

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For experiment #1, the straight pipe virtual experiment is selected to demonstrate how to
run the virtual lab. But first of all, a brief theoretical background to flow through straight
pipe is given.

When a fluid flows inside a pipe, fluid elements in the center of the pipe will move at a
higher speed than those closer to the wall. This movement of fluid elements relative to
each other is associated with pressure drop, called friction losses or viscous losses. At low
flow rates, the pressure drop per unit length is proportional to the volumetric flow rate
(laminar region). At intermediate flow rates, there is a region where the experimental
results are not reproducible (transient region). Finally, at very high flow rates, the pressure
drop becomes proportional to the flow rate raised to a power, which varies from 1.8 to 2.0
(turbulent regime) [15].

Knowledge of the magnitude of viscous losses is of great importance because it

determines the power requirements of the pump forcing the fluid through the pipe. For
example, in refining and petrochemical industries, these losses have to be calculated
accurately to determine where booster pumps have to be placed when pumping crude oil
or other fluids in pipes to distances thousands of kilometres away.

Using dimensional analysis, it is possible to show that flow in smooth pipes is a function
of only two dimensionless groups, the Reynolds number and the friction factor.

Dv ρ
Re = (1)
η
∆p D
f = (2)
2ρ v 2 L

In smooth pipe, the friction factor-Reynolds number relationship for laminar region is:

16
f = , for Re < 2100, laminar (3)
Re

In the range 4000 < Re < 105, the relationship follows closely the Blasius equation:

f = 0.079 Re 1 / 4 , for 4000 < Re < 105 , turbulent (4)

The Blasius equation is purely an empirical equation and has no theoretical basis, but it is
a convenient form for application. The entire turbulent region can be represented by the
von Kármán-Nikuradse equation:

1
(
= 4.0 log 10 Re )
f − 0.4 , for Re > 4000, turbulent (5)
f

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The Virtual Experiment:

When the Flow in Straight Pipe virtual experiment is selected, a display similar to Figure
3 below appears:

Figure 3: Straight Pipe Virtual Experiment Main Window

The flow control valve is opened to allow water to flow through the test pipe. The
Rotameter on the left hand side gives the value of the flow rate. While the corresponding
pressure drop readings are indicated on the pressure gauge.

One is expected to specify the pipe and fluid specifications via the 'View Specs' button.
Default values have already been entered. Users can adjust the values by deleting existing
values and typing new ones.

Once the pipe and fluid specifications are entered, flowrate can be varied via the flow
control valve. The valve is located near the entrance of the pipe. The positive (+) and the
negative signs (-) are used to increase or decrease the flow rate respectively.
As the experiment is run by increasing the flow rate, data are generated which can be
retrieved via the 'View Data' button. A sample data is shown in Figure 4 below.

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 Figure 4: Sample Data

Plot of friction factor versus Reynolds number can be seen via the 'View Plot' button.
Sample plot is shown in Figure 5 below.

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 Figure 5: Sample Plot

EXPERIMENT # 2: FLOWMETERS

Expansion and contraction losses can be exploited to measure volumetric flow rate. For
example, an orifice meter consists of a plate with a hole in the center that is placed
between flanges of two adjoining sections of pipe. The fluid contracts and then expands as
it moves through the orifice and this results in a pressure drop across the orifice, which
can be measured. The magnitude of the pressure drop can be related to the volumetric
flow rate. This is also the case with the other flow meters to be studied in this experiment,
venturimeter and Pitot tube.

Venturi meter, orifice meter, and Pitot tube are widely used as flow measuring devices in
the industry. The Pitot-static tube is the standard device for measuring airspeed of
airplanes [15], and is often used for measuring the local velocity in pipes or ducts. One
can easily identify the Pitot-static probes projecting form the front of modern commercial
airplanes. For measuring flow in enclosed ducts or channels, the Venturi meter and orifice
meters are more convenient and more frequently used. The Venturi is widely used
particularly for large volume liquid and gas flows since it exhibits little pressure loss.
However, for smaller pipes orifice meter is a suitable choice.

Pitot Static Tube:

Pitot-Static tube is an instrument for measuring velocity by means of pressure

measurement. It is assumed that the presence of the tube will not affect the upstream flow
field. It consists of an inner tube, which is open at the end, and outer tube that is sealed at
the end but contains several openings along the side. Each tube is filled with the flowing

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fluid, and the tubes are connected to a manometer. By applying Bernoulli’s equation to the
streamline leading to the stagnation point (tip of the inner tube where the velocity is zero)
leads to an equation of the following form [14]:

2 ( p2 − p3 )
V1 = (6)
ρ
where, p2 is the stagnation pressure, while p3 is the pressure acting on the side holes in the
outer tube, so it is the pressure of the fluid in the outer tube. Thus, the manometer
measures directly the pressure difference and hence the velocity.

Orifice meter:

An orifice is a flat plate with a centrally drilled hole machined to a sharp edge. The orifice
plate is inserted between two flanges perpendicularly to the flow, so that the flow passes
through the hole with the sharp edge of the orifice pointing to the upstream. The
relationship between flow rate and pressure drop can be determined using Bernoulli’s
equation as:

2 ( p1 − p 2 )
Q = C o Ao (7)
(1 − ( A o / A) ρ
2
)
where, Q is the volumetric flow rate, Ao is the orifice cross sectional area, A is the pipe
cross-sectional area, p1 and p2 are the pressure measured at the upstream and downstream
and Co is the orifice coefficient, which has a value of approximately 0.62.

Venturi meter:

One of the disadvantages of orifice meters is the large irreversible pressure loss across the
orifice, which results in substantial pumping costs in case of large diameter pipes.
However, the same principle can be exploited with only minimal pressure loss with the
use of a Venturi meter. In this case, the meter consists of a section with both a smooth
contraction and a smooth expansion. Because of the smoothness of the contraction and
expansion, the irreversible pressure loss is low. However, in order to obtain a significant
measurable pressure drop, the downstream pressure tap is placed at the “throat” of the
meter; i.e., at the point of the smallest diameter. The equation relating flow rate to
pressure drop is the same as equation (7) except that the value of the coefficient is about
0.98 for a well-designed Venturi.

The Virtual Experiment:

When the Flowmeters virtual experiment is selected, a display similar to Figure 6 appears.

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 Figure 6: Flowmeters Main Window

The flow control valve is opened to allow water to flow through the different flow meters.
The Rotameter on the left hand side gives the value of the flow rate. While the
corresponding pressure drop readings are indicated on the pressure gauge.

One is expected to specify the flow meters and fluid specifications via the 'View Specs'
button. Default values have already been entered. Users can adjust the values by deleting
existing values and typing new ones.

As the experiment is run by increasing the flow rate, data are generated which can be
retrieved via the 'View Data' button. Plots of pressure drop (delP) versus flowrate(Q) are
also generated. They can be viewed via the 'Plot delP vs Q' button.

EXPERIMENTS 3 AND 4:PACKED & FLUIDIZED BEDS

Flow in packed beds is a subject of great interest to chemical engineers for their
importance in fluidized-bed catalytic cracking, which is a standard petroleum refining
operation. As fluid moves between the individual packed particles, it experiences friction
at the surface of the packing as well as numerous changes in direction. This results in a
drag force, which manifests itself as a pressure drop across the bed [13]. In this

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experiment, the fluid flow rate is varied and the corresponding effect on the pressure drop
is observed.

Fluidized beds are packed beds where the fluid flows upwards over the packing at high-
enough velocity to suspend the solid particles, and the two-phase mixture behaves very
much like a liquid.

The most important parameters in packed and fluidized beds are the particle diameter, Dp,
the superficial velocity, v∞ , and the void fraction, ε. Superficial velocity is the flow rate
through the bed per unit area. The void fraction is the volume fraction of the packed bed
that is not occupied by the packing material.

Ergun’s equation is generally used to relate pressure drop across the bed and superficial
velocity:

150
fp = + 1.75 (8)
Re p
D pε 3 ∆p D p v∞ p
Where, f p = and Re p = .
ρv (1 − ε ) L
2
∞ (1 − ε )η

In the Ergun’s equation, the first term dominates at low Reynolds number while the last
term is dominant in turbulent regime [14]. According to this equation, pressure drop
across a packed bed increases with increasing flow rate. This continues until the
superficial velocity reaches a point where the product of the bed’s cross sectional area and
the pressure drop equals the gravitational force exerted on the mass of the bed particles.
At this point, the incoming fluid is able to lift the solids, resulting in marked expansion in
the bed volume, and the solid particles become individually suspended. The superficial
velocity of the fluid at this point is called the minimum fluidizing velocity, vmf. As the
superficial velocity is increased further beyond this point the pressure drop does not
significantly change. Two expressions for the minimum fluidizing velocity can be
obtained, one at low Reynolds number (ReP<10) and the other at high Reynolds number
(ReP>1000):

(ρ p − ρ f ) g D p2 ε 3
v mf = (9)
150 η (1 − ε )

1/ 2
 D p (ρ p − ρ f ) ε 3 g 
v mf =  (10)
 1.75 ρ f 

The Virtual Experiment:

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When the flow through packed beds or fluidization experiment is selected, a display
similar to Figure 7 appears.

Figure 7: Packed Beds Main Window

The flow control valve is opened to allow liquid to flow through the packed beds. The
Rotameter on the left hand side gives the value of the flow rate. While the corresponding
pressure drop readings are indicated on the pressure gauge.

One is expected to specify the bed, particle and fluid specifications via the 'View Specs'
button. Default values have already been entered. Users can adjust the values by deleting
existing values and typing new ones.

Once the bed, particle and fluid specifications are entered, flow rate can be varied via the
flow control valve. And the corresponding pressure drop readings are indicated on the
pressure gauge.

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Plots of pressure drop (delP) versus flow rate(Q) and fp vs. Rep can be obtained from the
data generated.

[4] CONCLUSIONS

Using Microsoft Visual Studio, we have designed an interactive teaching tool for fluid
mechanics experiments. Four experiments have been added to the virtual lab consisting of
packed and fluidized beds, flow in smooth pipe and flowmeters. The virtual experiments
will help students understand the fundamentals of fluid flow and provide a novel method
of learning new processes and concepts. More experiments will be added to the software
covering such areas as Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, Unit Operations, Process Control
and Reaction Kinetics as soon as additional support is secured.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge the use of information and facilities of the King Fahd
University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and financial support
through the Academic Development Center of the same university.

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