 Mostly the conduits used in engineering practice

are of circular cross sections

 Equations studied in the previous topic can

therefore be modified for application to non-
circular cross sections using the concept of
hydraulic radius.

 As circular pipes are not that common, most of the

equations use diameter D instead of hydraulic
radius Rh as linear dimension
 So for a circular pipe flowing full,
Rh  D / 4  D  4Rh (19)

This can also be called the equivalent diameter.

Substituting this in (13)
2
L V
h f  f (20)
4R h 2g
Then the relation for Reynold’s number will take the
form
V 4 R h
R 
 (21)
1. Derive the relation (Hagen-Poiseulle Law) for the
head loss due to friction in Laminar flow case in
pipes. Also prove that mean velocity V is half of the
maximum velocity for laminar flow case.

Hint: consider a fluid element at a distance ‘r’ from

the center of the pipe. Let ‘dr’ be its thickness and
‘dA’ be its area.
As per Newton’s law of viscosity,
du
   (22)
dy
Where u is the velocity at a distance y from the
boundary.
If an element of fluid annular in shape at a distance r
from the centre line is considered, with thickness
dr then
du
  
dr (23)
Where negative sign shows that u decreases as r
increases
 hf 
du   rdr (25)
2 L
Integrating (25) and determining the constant of
integration from the fact that u = umax, when r = 0,
Then
hf 
u  umax  r 2  umax  kr 2 (26)
4L
Where k 
h f 
4L
So it can be concluded that velocity profile is a
parabola. Also
 Consider a pipe connected to a reservoir with
rounded entrance

 Consider section AA’ where fluid is just

entering into the pipe

 So because of minimum friction, velocity

distribution will be uniform at this stage.

 At section BB’, some sort of friction is exerted

by the walls of the pipe, thereby resulting in
negligible velocity at the pipe wall.
 BB’ CC’

AA’
1. Derive the relation (Hagen-Poiseulle Law) for the
head loss due to friction in Laminar flow case in
pipes. Also prove that mean velocity V is half of the
maximum velocity for laminar flow case.

Hint: consider a fluid element at a distance ‘r’ from

the center of the pipe. Let ‘dr’ be its thickness and
‘dA’ be its area.
2. Prove that the frictional factor ‘f’ for laminar flow
under pressure in a circular pipe is given by
f  64 / R
3. For the case of laminar flow in pipe, at what
distance from the centerline (in terms of pipe
radius) does the mean velocity occur.

4. An oil with kinematic viscosity 0.004ft2/sec

weighs 62 lb/ft2. Determine its flow rate and head
loss in a 2750-ft length pipe of 3inch diameter
when Reynolds no. is 950.
 Consider a pipe connected to a reservoir with
rounded entrance

 Consider section AA’ where fluid is just

entering into the pipe

 So because of minimum friction, velocity

distribution will be uniform at this stage.

 At section BB’, some sort of friction is exerted

by the walls of the pipe, thereby resulting in
negligible velocity at the pipe wall.
Developing or establishing length

◦ It is that distance from the pipe entrance to a

section CC’ where a parabolic velocity profile first
becomes fully consistent

◦ Also, it is the distance from the pipe entrance at

which thickness of the boundary layer becomes r0.
◦ Beyond section CC’ for same straight pipe the
velocity profile does not change, and hence the flow
is known as Established Flow or Fully Developed
Flow.
◦ Given as
Le  0.058Re D
 Most flows encountered in engineering
practice are turbulent, and thus it is
important to understand how turbulence
affects wall shear stress.
 However, turbulent flow is a complex
mechanism dominated by fluctuations, and
despite tremendous amounts of work done
in this area by researchers, the theory of
turbulent flow remains largely undeveloped.
 Therefore, we must rely on experiments and
the empirical or semi-empirical correlations
developed for various situations.
 Point velocity in the flow field normally
fluctuates both in magnitude and direction

 The fluctuation is normally due to the

formation of small eddies created by viscous
shear between adjacent particles

 With the passage of time, the eddies grow in

size and then disappear because of their
mixing with adjacent eddy particles, thereby
resulting in a mixture of all the particles in
the fluid flow.
Developing or establishing length

◦ It is that distance from the pipe entrance to a

section CC’ where a parabolic velocity profile first
becomes fully consistent

◦ Also, it is the distance from the pipe entrance at

which thickness of the boundary layer becomes r0.
◦ Beyond section CC’ for same straight pipe the
velocity profile does not change, and hence the flow
is known as Established Flow or Fully Developed
Flow.
◦ Given as
Le  0.058Re D
 For critical value of Reynold’s number, the
entrance length Le equals 116 times pipe
diameter.
 In other cases of laminar flow with Re less
than 2000, Le will correspondingly be low.
 Most flows encountered in engineering
practice are turbulent, and thus it is
important to understand how turbulence
affects wall shear stress.
 However, turbulent flow is a complex
mechanism dominated by fluctuations, and
despite tremendous amounts of work done
in this area by researchers, the theory of
turbulent flow remains largely undeveloped.
 Therefore, we must rely on experiments and
the empirical or semi-empirical correlations
developed for various situations.
 Point velocity in the flow field normally
fluctuates both in magnitude and direction

 The fluctuation is normally due to the

formation of small eddies created by viscous
shear between adjacent particles

 With the passage of time, the eddies grow in

size and then disappear because of their
mixing with adjacent eddy particles, thereby
resulting in a mixture of all the particles in
the fluid flow.
 In a manner similar to laminar flow, if the
molecules in the flow are replaced by
eddies, then the shear stress due to
turbulence will be directly proportional to
the velocity gradient
du
 tur 
dy

or
du
 tur  
dy
where  is the eddy viscosity which is not normally
constant for a given temperature as it depends on the
flow turbulence.

 can also be called coefficient of momentum transfer

expressing the momentum transfer from points of low
velocity to higher ones or vice versa.

Total shear stress for turbulent flow case is usually taken

as the summation of laminar shear stress and the
turbulent shear stress given by
   lam   tur (1)

du du
   (2)
dy dy

du
      (3)
dy
du
       (4)
dy
   kinematic viscosity


  kinematic eddy viscosity

For any flow case for a smooth walled pipe,

shear stress is normally due to laminar flow
alone and therefore, for these cases
du
  
dy
 For the case of turbulent flow, at some
distance “0.2r” from the pipe wall, the value
of du/dy becomes small.
 This consequently results in a decrease of
viscous shear i.e. lam or  viscous as compared to
turbulent shear, even though du/dy is small.
 This normally happens due to a relatively
higher value of  because of higher
turbulence.
 If a fluid of mass m, below ab,
moving with temporal mean axial
velocity u moves upward where the
temporal mean axial velocity is
u+Δu, the momentum in axial
direction increases by mΔu and vice
versa.
 The back and forth transfer of
momentum results in shear along
the plane ab proportional to Δu.
 If distance Δy is chosen in such a
way that average value of +u′ in
upper zone over a time period (long
enough to include many velocity
fluctuations) is equal to Δu i.e.

u  u 
 So the distance between the two streams will be
called mixing length ‘l’, equal to Δy.
 If a mass is moving upward from below ab with a
velocity v′ it will transport into upper zone where
the velocity is u+u′, the momentum per unit time
will be given by
 (Kg/m3)(m/s)(m2)(m/s) = Mass x velocity/unit time = Momentum/unit time
 (v dA)(u )
 Slower moving mass below ‘ab’ will tend to retard
the upper moving mass, resulting in shear along
the plane ab. This shear force will be given by
F  dA  Q ( V )   (vdA)(u  u   u )  u vdA


F  dA  Q(V ) =(kg/m3)(m3/s)(m/s) = (kg.m/s2)

 Newton = (kg.m/s2)
 In case of a larger number of fluctuations,
  F / dA    u  v 
 In modern turbulence theory,  u  v is known
as Reynold’s stress.

 -ve sign shows that the product u v  is always

negative on average.
 ‘l’ is the distance
transverse to the flow
direction such that

u  u 
From figure

So u  ldu / dy

u   ldu / dy
If
u   v
And if l accounts for the constant of proportionality,
according to Prandtl,
u v   varies as l 2
du / dy 2

Thus

2
2  du 
    u  v   l  
 dy 
 If Reynold’s number is greater than the critical
value, up to some point, the entrance condition is
same as Laminar flow
 Due to the increase in the thickness of the laminar
boundary layer, a certain point of transition occurs
and the boundary layer becomes turbulent
 Turbulent boundary layer increases in thickness
much more rapidly than a laminar layer
 Transition normally occurs where the length xc of
the laminar portion of the boundary layer is about
500000 / U or R x  Ux /   500000
 SL

L
 Turbulent boundary layer increases in thickness
much more quickly than the laminar layer therefore
the length of the inviscid core is slightly shorter
than the one for laminar flow case.

 Velocity profile is generally fully developed within

20-40 diameters.
 Even for the case of turbulent flow, the flow next to
the wall is essentially laminar due to

◦ Smaller velocity of flow near the pipe wall results in smaller

Reynold’s number so flow becomes laminar (No Slip
Condition)

◦ Lateral component of velocity is not possible so the flow is

laminar

◦ Some transient effects are still induced in the flow due the
movement of adjacent turbulent layer resulting in some
disruption in the sublayer.

◦ Since this layer is not a true laminar layer and shear in the
layer is due to viscosity alone, it is called viscous sublayer.
 Even though the viscous sublayer is extremely thin, it
still has a great effect because of the very steep velocity
gradient within it.

 For studying the velocity profiles, shear stress velocity

or frictional velocity is quite important and is given by

 u*   0 /  (A)
 Although its dimensions are of velocity, scientists have
named it as shear stress velocity or friction velocity u*
although it is actually not flow velocity.
When there is an extremely thin layer of fluid
next to the wall where viscous shear
dominates, its velocity profile can be scarcely
distinguished from a straight line, so for
linear velocity profile

u
 0   or  o /   u / y (B)
y
 Squaring eq. (A) and equating to eq. (B)

2 u
u * 
y

u yu *
  (C)
u* 

This is known as law of the wall

 If the irregularities on a surface are small enough that
the effects of the projections do not pierce through the
viscous sublayer, the surface is hydraulically smooth

 If the effects of the projections extend beyond the

sublayer, the laminar layer is broken up and the surface
is no longer hydraulically smooth.

 If the roughness projections are large enough to

protrude through the transition layer, it is totally broken
up, the resulting flow is fully rough (pipe) flow.
 Since we know from previous  0 = fV2ρ/8 or
  0 = fV2Ƴ/8g (8.19 of the book)
 Simplifying the above equation, we get
  0 /ρ = fV2/8
 Hence u*   0  V f (a)
 8
  5 / u
 Also L
 * (b)
 Substituting equation (a) in equation (b)
 14.14 14.14 D
L  
V f R f
 It can be seen from the expression that
higher the velocity or lower the kinematic
viscosity, thinner is the viscous sub-layer.
 For a given constant pipe diameter, thickness
of the viscous sub-layer decreases as the
Reynold’s number increases.
 o
du  2
dy
l
or du 
o 1
. .dy
 l
where,l=Ky, and K=0.4, so

o 1
du  2.5 . .dy
 y
Integrating both sides to obtain expression for u with
respect to y.

u  2.5 0 ln y  C
 --(A) {Since ∫ (1/y) dy = ln y + c}

“C” is a constant which can be determined from

boundary conditions

y  r0  u  umax
umax

 2.5 0 ln r0  C

If eu* /   70 the pipe will behave as fully
rough.
If 5  eu* /   70 the pipe will behave in a transition
mode, neither hydraulically smooth nor fully rough.
and moves with velocity ‘U’ (m/s) given as

o  r0 
u  u max  2 . 5 ln  
  ro  r 
Turbulent flow in a pipe is strongly influenced by
the flow phenomena near the wall (Prandtl).

 0 at some point P very close to the wall.

Mixing length l near the wall is proportional to the
distance from the wall

l  Ky from experiments K=0.4.

y is the distance of point P from wall (outside
viscous sublayer).
 Particle at Point
‘P’ near the
edge of the
Pipe wall y Viscous Sublayer
0

y=r0-r
r0 r 
Umax
If  0 at P

and we know that

   vis   tur for
 vis  0
 tur     0
From Prandtl’s mixing length theory

2
 du 
2
 tur   0  l  
 dy 
 o
du  2
dy
l
or du 
o 1
. .dy
 l
where,l=Ky, and K=0.4, so

o 1
du  2.5 . .dy
 y
Integrating both sides to obtain expression for u with
respect to y.

u  2.5 0 ln y  C
 --(A) {Since ∫ (1/y) dy = ln y + c}

“C” is a constant which can be determined from

boundary conditions

y  r0  u  umax
umax

 2.5 0 ln r0  C

 0
C  umax  2.5 ln r0 -- (B)
So 

0 o
or u  2.5 ln y  umax  2.5 ln r0
 
 o  r0 
u  u max  2 .5 ln   y  r0  r
  ro  r 
The rearrangement of the above equation is also
known as “Velocity Defect Law”
 Consider turbulent flow of an incompressible fluid in
a pipe of constant diameter D (radius r0).
Consider an annular shape element of fluid at a
distance “r” having thickness “dr”
Area of the fluid element will be given by

dr
y=r r0
r
r Umax

dA  2  rdr
and moves with velocity ‘U’ (m/s) given as

o  r0 
u  u max  2 . 5 ln  
  ro  r 
 Since discharge is product of area and velocity
 dQ = U x dA -------(X)
 Putting values of dA and U in expression (X) and
integrating
r0
  0  r0  
Q  2  u max rdr  2.5 ln rdr 
0 
  r0  r  

Dividing by the pipe area and simplifying the

above expression, the mean velocity is given by
r0
0  2 
V  umax  2 .5 ln r0  2  r ln r0  r dr 
  r0 0 
After integration and simplification we will get
0
As we know that V  u max  3.75

0 f
 u*  V
 8
Then

= max − 3.75 = − 1.326 √

8

umax  V  1.326V f or umax  V 1  1.326 f 

The rearrangement of the previous expression as is
also called as pipe factor

V  1 
 
u max 1  1.326 f 