Introduction

Flow of fluid through a pipe is resisted by viscous shear stresses within the fluid and the
turbulence that occurs along the internal pipe wall, which is dependent on the roughness of the
pipe material. This resistance is termed pipe friction and is usually measured in feet or meters
head of the fluid, which is why it is also referred to as the head loss due to pipe friction.

Pressure loss is proportional to L/D ratio and velocity head. For low velocities, where the flow is
laminar, friction loss is caused by viscous shearing between streamlines near the wall of the pipe
and the friction factor (f) is well defined. The equation is known as Darcy Weisbach equation.

𝐿 𝑉2
ℎ𝑓 = 𝑓 × ×
𝐷 2𝑔

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒
𝑓 = 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟
𝐿 = 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ (𝑚)
𝐷 = 𝐷𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 (𝑚)
𝑉 = 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑚/𝑠)

For high velocities where the flow is fully turbulent, friction loss is caused by water particles
coming into contact with irregularities in the surface of the pipe and friction factor itself is a
function of surface roughness.

In most engineering applications, the velocity is less than that required for fully turbulent flow
and f is a function of both the viscosity of a boundary layer and the roughness of the pipe
surface. Values of f can be determined experimentally and plotted in dimensionless form against
Reynolds Number Re to from a Moody Diagram.

Minor losses occur due to valve, bend, section or any other interruption. Minor losses behave
similarly to major losses, where a device with a large k value leads to a high pressure loss. In
general, a very sudden change to the flow path contributes to significant pressure loss.

𝑉2
ℎ𝑓 = 𝑘 ×
2𝑔

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒
𝑘 = 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑜𝑟 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝑉 = 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 (𝑚/𝑠)
Experimental Procedure
To make observations and obtain readings we started the pump to performing priming of
complete pipe network. Initially we set the valves to introduce flow and closed the sump tank
drain valve and isolating valve.

We then allowed flow from Inlet Flow Control Valve and opened isolating valves in testing pipe
as required and started with a very low flow rate. For measuring very small flow rates we used a
measuring cylinder to collect the water while for comparatively larger flows volumetric tank in
the hydraulic bench was used. We measured head loss between the tapping’s using the mercury
manometer or pressurized water manometer as appropriate. We slowly increased the flow rates
and measured readings for head loss and corresponding flow rate on test pipes 2 and 4.

To perform the calculations we require the physical dimensions of each test pipe. By using a
vernier caliper we measure the internal diameter of each test pipe sample and length between the
tapping’s.