The textbooks have a process on the following pages:

Munson Pages 336-337

Fox and McDonald Pages 297-298 and 301-303

When finding Pi groups, I am biased towards using MLT as my base unit system. Ideally when a problem
relating to dimensional analysis is given all of the necessary parameters will also be given. However, if
that is not the case, I will try and think of any parameter that might be relevant to the problem and
express it in its base form (for example rather than expressing area as L2, use L).

When choosing the parameters that are nonrepeating, I try and pick ones that contain all of the base
units. There should be a number of nonrepeating parameters equal to the total number of parameters
minus the number of base units.

Once the nonrepeating parameters are chosen, it is a simple process of making sure that all the
dimensions cancel out.

Fox and McDonald has some good examples to work out (7.1 on page 298-299, and 7.2 on page 299-
300)

Below is an example from my second fluids I test.

𝑃 = 𝑓(∀̇, 𝜌, 𝜔, 𝐷, 𝜇) Derive the Pi groups for the Power Coefficient

There are 6 parameters given, this combined with using the MLT system means that I should have 3 Pi
groups.

The first step I take in determining the Pi groups is to write the parameters in terms of their base units.

P ∀̇ ρ ω (angular velocity) D μ
𝑀𝐿2 𝐿3 𝑀 1 𝑀
( ) ( ) ( 3) ( ) (L) ( )
𝑇3 𝑇 𝐿 𝑇 𝐿𝑇

The three nonrepeating parameters that I chose were power, viscosity, and volumetric flow rate.
The next step is to take the one of the nonrepeating parameters and raise it to the power 1 and multiply
it by all of the repeating parameters raised to unknown powers
1
𝑀𝐿2 𝑀 𝑎 1 𝑏
Power: ( 𝑇 3 ) ∗ (𝐿3 ) ∗ (𝑇) ∗ (𝐿)𝑐 = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0

The next step is to sum all the powers of each of the base units.

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 1 + 𝑎 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = 2 − 3𝑎 + 𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −3 − 𝑏 = 0

Solving the three equations, the unknown powers can be found.

a=-1

b=-3

c=-5

Reassembling the variables using the powers, the first Pi group is found.
𝑃
π1: P1*ρ-1*ω-3*D-5 or 𝜋1 = 𝜌𝜔3 𝐷5

The same process is repeated for the remaining non repeating parameters

𝑀 1 𝑀 𝑎 1 𝑏
Viscosity: (𝐿𝑇) ∗ (𝐿3 ) ∗ (𝑇) ∗ (𝐿)𝑐 = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 1 + 𝑎 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = −1 − 3𝑎 + 𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −1 − 𝑏 = 0

=>

a =-1

b=-1

c=-2

=>
𝜇 𝜇 1
π2: μ1*ρ-1*ω-1*D-2 or 𝜋2 = 𝜌𝜔𝐷2 Note: ω*D = Velocity => π2 can be expressed as 𝜌𝑉𝐷 = 𝑅𝑒
 1
𝐿3 𝑀 𝑎 1 𝑏
Volumetric Flow Rate: ( 𝑇 ) ∗ (𝐿3 ) ∗ (𝑇) ∗ (𝐿)𝑐 = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 0 + 𝑎 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = 3 − 3𝑎 + 𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −1 − 𝑏 = 0

=>

a =0

b=-1

c=-3

=>
∀̇
π3: ∀̇*ρ0*ω-1*D-2 or 𝜋3 = 𝜔𝐷3

Second example: an ocean wave

The parameters that I think are important are the depth, the density of the water, the viscosity of the
water, the velocity of the wave, and gravity.

Based on information that I know about open channel flow, I would select my non repeating parameters
slightly differently than by choosing ones that contain all the base units. I also tried picking the
parameters that contain all the base units. Both methods work fine, the only difference is what velocity
is present in the Reynolds number.

ρ g y μ v
𝑀 𝐿 𝑀 𝐿
(𝐿 3 ) (𝑇 2 ) (L) (𝐿𝑇) (𝑇 )

𝑀 1 𝐿 𝑎 𝑀 𝑐
Viscosity: (𝐿𝑇) ∗ (𝑇 2 ) ∗ (𝐿)𝑏 ∗ (𝐿3 ) = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 1 + 𝑐 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = −1 + 𝑎 + 𝑏 − 3𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −1 − 2𝑎 = 0
=>

a =-1/2

b=-3/2

c=-1

=>
𝜇 𝜇
𝜋1 = 1 3 = Note: for open channel flow the wave speed (not the same as velocity) is √𝑔𝑦 =>
𝑔2 𝑦 2 𝜌 √𝑔𝑦 3 𝜌
𝜇 𝜇 1
𝜋1 = = =
√ 𝑔𝑦∗√𝑦 2 𝜌 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑∗𝑦∗𝜌 𝑅𝑒 (𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑)

𝐿 1 𝐿 𝑎 𝑀 𝑐
Velocity: ( ) ∗ ( 2 ) ∗ (𝐿)𝑏 ∗ ( 3 ) = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0
𝑇 𝑇 𝐿

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 0 + 𝑐 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = 1 + 𝑎 + 𝑏 − 3𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −1 − 2𝑎 = 0

=>

a =-1/2

b=-1/2

c=0

=>
𝑣 𝑣
𝜋2 = 1 1 = = 𝐹𝑟 Note: Fr is the Froude number, which determines if the flow is subcritical,
𝑔2 𝑦 2 √𝑔𝑦
supercritical, or critical. It is similar to the Mach number which is used for sonic flow.
Selecting nonrepeating parameters based on base units:

𝐿 1 𝐿 𝑎 𝑀 𝑐
Gravity: ( 2 ) ∗ ( ) ∗ (𝐿)𝑏 ∗ ( 3 ) = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0
𝑇 𝑇 𝐿

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 0 + 𝑐 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = 1 + 𝑎 + 𝑏 − 3𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −2 − 𝑎 = 0

=>

a =-2

b=1

c=0

=>
𝑔𝑦 𝑔𝑦 1
𝜋1 = 𝑣2
= √𝑣 = 𝐹𝑟

𝑀 1 𝐿 𝑎 𝑀 𝑐
Viscosity: (𝐿𝑇) ∗ (𝑇) ∗ (𝐿)𝑏 ∗ (𝐿3 ) = 𝑀0 ∗ 𝐿0 ∗ 𝑇 0

M: ∑ 𝑀 = 1 + 𝑐 = 0

L: ∑ 𝐿 = −1 + 𝑎 + 𝑏 − 3𝑐 = 0

T: ∑ 𝑇 = −1 − 𝑎 = 0

=>

a =-1

b=-1

c=-1

=>
𝜇 1
𝜋2 = 𝑣𝑦𝜌 = 𝑅𝑒