PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

TECHNICAL REPORT On Fluid Flow By Muhammad Hassaan Warsi

Student ID: 200553008 Module Leader: Dr. Clive Hudson Module: Technical Skills And Application (PEME1000)

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

Background Information
In engineering terms a filter is any device that is meant to remove any contaminants or impurities from a source. In the engineering domain, filters play a vital role and their uses are applied across various industries from water and sewage to beverage and food industries, pharmaceutical to the oil industry (Dickenson 1997). In process industries especially, filtration plays a crucial role. Over the years, scientists and researchers alike have strived to create more efficient and cost-effective techniques of filtration, which include the use of silica hydragels, glass fibre amongst many other materials (Dickenson 1997). As industrial techniques have changed over the years, so have the demands of the filters and it has been one of the challenges faced by the new breed of engineers to meet up with this demand and strive to develop a new range of products which meets these criteria. In clinical engineering, there are various types of filters; sand filters for removing turbidity, and recently designed carbon-filters that remove low-weight, organic molecules as well as reduce halogens present in water (Dyro 2004).

Experiment

Figure 1

Diagrammatic representation of the experimental model

Although the experiment was a fairly low-risk one, there were certain safety precautions that were in place as water and current were an integral feature of the set-up. The equipment needed to be dealt carefully. A circuit was set up (as shown in Figure 1) using pipes such that a holding tank, flow-meter, a filter and a pump were all in series. The pipes were connected with three valves such that two alternate pathways could be created- one through which the water would pass through the filter, and second, without. The pump was connected to an electrical output. To ensure that the fluid (water) passed through the filters, all three valves were kept open. Once the set up was complete, the pump was switched on. A few minutes were allotted initially and then the experimental work began. The pump setting was selected to '3' and all three valves were left open so that the water would pass through the

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

filter. The pressure was noted at the beginning and so was the initial flow-meter reading (recorded as A in Table 1.1). After 60 seconds, the flow-meter reading was again taken (recorded as B) and after another 60 seconds, the final flow-meter reading was taken (recorded as C). The same experiment was repeated under similar settings but the pump setting was changed to '2'. The experiment was repeated third time but this time the pump setting was selected as '1'. All the results were recorded (as shown in Table 1.1) Next, valve v1 and valve v2 were closed so the water did not flow through the filter anymore. Now the experiment was repeated on different pump settings ('3', '2', and '1') and similar readings were obtained at 0 seconds, 60 seconds and subsequently 120 seconds from the start of the experiment. All these results were recorded and tabulated as well (as shown in Table 1.2) Table 1.1a Pump setting '1', with filter
Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 25851 15 1244 B (60 s) 25866 15 1244 C (120 s) 25881

Table 1.1b Pump setting '2', with filter

Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 25794 20 1641 B (60 s) 25814 20 1641 C (120 s) 25834

Table 1.1c Pump setting '3', with filter

Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 25715 23 1890 B (60 s) 25738 23 1890 C (120 s) 25761

Table 1.2a Pump setting '1', without filter

Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 26037 17 1393 B (60 s) 26054 16 1343 C (120 s) 26070

Table 1.2b Pump setting '2', without filter

Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 25977 22 1840 B (60 s) 25999 22 1840 C (120 s) 26021

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application Table 1.2c Pump setting '3', without filter
Reading on meter In m/min Difference in m/min Difference in m/s A (0 s) 25912 26 2139 B (60 s) 25938

Fluid Flow Technical Report

C (120 s) 25963 25 2089

Results
To simplify the results it was essential to convert the rate of fluid flow from m/min to m/s. This was done by the simple conversion of m/min to m/s and the following data was then divided by the crosssection area of the pipe to quantify m/s. The cross-section area of the pipe was easy to calculate as the diameter of the pipe (16 mm) was provided hence: linear velocity (m/s) = velocity in (m/s ) / cross-section area of the pipe This equation is how the answers were simplified to m/s in Tables 1 and 2 respectively. Table 2a: Readings obtained, with filter. Pressure (Pa) Rate of Fluid Flow (m/s) I 1 2 3 5000 16000 26000 1244 1641 1890 II 1244 1641 1890 Average 1244 1641 1890

Pump Setting

Pump Setting 1 2 3

Table 2b: Readings obtained, without filter Pressure (Pa) Rate of Fluid Flow (m/s) I 6000 16000 26000 1393 1840 2139 II 1343 1840 2089 Average 1368 1840 2114

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

Figure 2a: Pressure-flow relationship as pump setting changes, without filter

Figure 2b: Pressure-flow relationship as pump setting changes, with filter

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

Calculating the friction factor:

P = f l u d
2

w h e r e f f r ic t io n f a c t o r ; l le n g t h

o f p ip e ; f lu id

d e n s it y ; d p ip e d ia m e t e r ; u lin e a r v e lo c it y .

Equation 1 Using the formula provided above (Equation 1) the friction factor can be calculated for flow with and without the filter. The first step that was necessary was to re-arrange the formulae making friction factor f the subject of the formulae. Secondly knowing that the length of the pipe (with the filter) was 3 m and 1.6 m (without the filter), all the relevant data was substituted into the formulae and hence the corresponding value of friction factor was determined. Since each pump setting had a different linear velocity, it was quite sufficient to just use on of the average velocity readings on one pump setting and use the corresponding value for the other set of readings as well. Using (for with the filter); length of pipe, l= 3 m fluid density, = 1000 kg/m pipe diameter, d = 0.016 m linear velocity, u = 1244 m/s pressure, P = 5000 Pa the friction factor was calculated to be : 1.723 x 10-8 The same calculation was then done for friction factor of flow, without the filter this time. The following data was incorporated into the equation; length of pipe = 1.6 m fluid density, = 1000 kg/m pipe diameter, d = 0.016 m linear velocity, u = 1368 m/s pressure, P = 6000 Pa the friction factor was calculated to be : 3.206 x 10-8 Note: friction factor does not have a unit.

Discussion

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

After the experiment was concluded, an overall analysis was done of the results and certain features were drawn out. It was observed that as the pump settings increased (from '1' to '2' to '3') the linear velocity of flow also increased in both instances. This relationship can be demonstrated in all the tables that have been provided above (Table 1, Table 2). Also another distinct feature that was picked out was that as the pump setting increased, the pressure recorded on pressure-gauge also increased. This relationship too is demonstrated in the tables (Table 1, Table 2) as well as the graphical representations of the data (Figure 1, Figure 2). Comparing the set of datas for fluid flow through the filter, and without the filter, initially just some slight variants were seen. Primarily, it was observed that for the same pump settings, the linear velocity was always higher when the fluid flow was without filter as opposed to through a filter. By comparing the final average readings for each pump setting in Table 2, this relationship becomes more lucid. However, there was hardly any difference in the pressure reading in both the cases, albeit at pump setting '1' a slight change from 6 kPa (without the filter) to 5 kPa (with the filter) The most striking difference however that was seen with the set of experiments was the difference in frictional factor between them both. The friction factor of flow without the filter (3.206 x 10-8) was almost twice as more as the friction factor of flow with the filter (1.723 x 10-8). These data were obtained by simple calculation involving Equation 1 (see above). The reasons for this difference in friction factor are discussed below.

Conclusion
Fluids are often subjected to different types of resistance, most of them stemming from friction. Friction can be occur between the layers of fluid itself or between the fluid and its surrounding material, in this case the pipe. Friction factor depends on various factors, some of which are the speed of the fluid, changes in temperature of the fluid, the nature of the pipe including it's length, radii, roughness as well as the layout of the pipe (straight or bends) amongst many others. Since the conditions in both the experiments were almost the same except the length of the pipe, it would be reasonable to assume that the change in the friction factor was mostly due to the change in the length of pipe. Since the friction factor seen in both cases is of a fairly small magnitude (of the order negative 8) it can be assumed that the resistivity of the pipe was fairly low for most part. Following the equation it would be safe to assume that had the diameter of the pipe provided been 1 m instead of being in mm, the friction factor would be much lower. This would be because the surface-area to volume (of fluid) flowing ratio would decrease and secondly an increase in diameter would mean that the pressure at which the water flows would be less and this would impact the friction factor greatly as well (Chou 2006).

Reference List

PEME1000 Technical Skills And Application

Fluid Flow Technical Report

Dyro, J (2004). Clinical Engineering Handbook. California: Elsevier Academic Press. Dickenson, T (1997). Filters and Filtration Handbook. 4th ed. Oxford: Elsevier Advanced Technology.

Pipe Flow 3D - Pressure Drop Theory Pipe Flow, Available: http://www.pipeflow.co.uk/public/control.php?_path=/497/503/510 Last accessed: 5th November, 2010 Chou, V (2006) Investigation of Friction Factor with Flow in Pipes Rothfus, Available: http://rothfus.cheme.cmu.edu/tlab/fluid1/projects/t10s06/t10_s06_r2.pdf Last accessed 5th November, 2010