Energy Analysis of Pipes and Fittings

Allcris Roma1

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the energy analysis of pipes and fittings experiment set-up in the Mechanical Engineering
Laboratory of the University of San Carlos Talamban Campus. The energy analysis of a piping system is important, practically to a piping
system that involves water distribution. The intended design considerations for the analysis of a certain pipe network rely on the
approximation of the certain head losses that occurs in the piping system. Equations relating to the fluid flow condition serve as the basis for
the energy analysis of the piping system. The experiment aims to assess the energy dissipation of the pipes and fittings experiment set-up by
gathering the pressure heads and velocity heads of the pipe set-up and to compare the data and results of the energy analysis with the other
experimenters by generating a hydraulic grade line and energy grade line.

Author keywords: Pipes and Fittings, Energy Analysis, Hydraulic Grade Line, Energy Grade Line

Introduction

Pipes are used all over the world for transporting fluids in many
settings, for example in the petrochemical, water and energy
industries (Gao et al. 2016). According to Zhang et al. (2016)
fluid-conveying pipes are one of the most common and important
structures widely used in engineering and the dynamics of these
pipes have been a popular research topic. Pipelines are essential
infrastructure that plays a significant role in a nations economy,
social well-being and quality of life (Li et al. 2016). According
also to Wu et al. (2016) pipelines have been widely used in the
industries, and it is significant to develop the reliable health
monitoring methods and technologies for pipelines to reduce the
related accidents caused by corrosion, external force or pipe
material defects. The fluid that is transferred by the pipes that we
experimented was water. All throughout the entire process of
transferring the water there will be a certain phenomena inside the
pipe that will result to losses. One of the losses that was being
emphasized here is that the friction losses or head losses. These
losses are due to the internal surfaces of the pipes and fittings that
were used which resists the fluid flow passing through the
system. The losses that were mentioned above can also be known
as the major and minor losses in pipes. These losses also are
important on the energy analysis of pipes and fittings.
Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up of the
experiment for the energy analysis of pipes and fittings. The
energy analysis of pipes and fittings mainly involves the
determination of the pressure heads at different points of the pipe
network and the pipe flow rate. The pressure heads and flow rate
must suit the setting for the continuity and energy equations.
Energy and hydraulic grade lines were generated for the energy
analysis of the pipes and fittings. The grade lines mentioned
above is essential in the design to be able to determine the
viability of the designed piping system. These grade lines also
help the engineers in detecting the locations in the piping system
wherein problems are encountered like a certain part in the piping
system having a low pressure or high pressure. The goal of the
experiment is to understand the behavior of the energy and
hydraulic grade lines that was generated, also to measure the
parameters that involve in the calculations for the continuity and
energy equations like pressure head and flow rate and to compare
the data and result that was generated by the other group who first
experimented the energy analysis of pipes and fittings.
Experimental Methods
Apparatus

Fig. 1 Pipes and fittings experimental set-up in Mechanical Engineering
Laboratory (Image Courtesy:Yangs Group)
1
Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of
San Carlos Cebu City 6000, Philippines. E-mail: allcrisroma@gmail.com
The apparatus that was used on the energy analysis of pipes and
fittings can be seen in figure 1. The set-up consists of pipes
having different diameters and a variety of fittings. Priming
operation was first done using the axial pump in order to provide
water to the impeller blade housing of the centrifugal pump. The
priming cup also was opened to make sure that there is no air
trapped inside the impeller blade housing. An indication that there
is a trapped air inside the impeller blade housing is that there will
be a formation of bubbles. When there is no more bubble
formation it indicates that the centrifugal pump was already
primed and it is now ready to be turned on. A controlled overhead
tank was placed beside the pipelines which is used as a reservoir
to supply the preferred head for the flowing water through the
different pipelines. The control crank lever which was labeled in
figure 1 as water tank head crank was used to change the head at
an approximate preferred value. A centrifugal pump was used to
fill the overhead tank with water after it was primed. The volume
flow rate of the flowing water was obtained by getting the time at
which a bucket of known volume of 12 Liters will be completely
filled. The diameter of the pipe that we gathered came from the
other group who first experimented before us.
 c 179 165 153 198 183 166
d 172 159 143 191 177 156
e 137 130 126 156 148 139
f 129 123 120 148 141 133
Table 1 and table 2 shows the compared data between our group
and the group of Despi, Lobitana and Cudias. These data is for
pipeline 1 of the experimental set-up. The tabulated data for
pipelines 2 and 3 can be seen from the appendix.

Results and Discussions

Total Head and Hydraulic Head

Fig. 2 Schematic Diagram of the Experimental Set-up (Image Hydraulic head or total head is a measure of the potential of the
Courtesy:Cudias Group ) water fluid at the measurement point. Hydraulic head and total
head can be calculated as;
Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the experimental set-up
for the energy analysis of pipes and fittings. Meter stick was used P (1)
in order to measure the height of the piezometer to the ground, Hydraulic Head= + z
and a ruler was used to measure the difference between the water (2)
level of the piezometers. These piezometers are used to determine
the pressure heads at different points in the pipe system. Since
only pipe 1 was used in the experiment the elevation of the pipe 1
with the datum plane which is the ground was obtained using the P V2
meter stick. The elevation of the water tank to the ground was Total Head= + + z
2g
also obtained. This will serve as the basis in generating the
hydraulic and energy grade lines of pipe 1 in the system.

where P = fluid pressure, = specific weight of the fluid V

Data Gathering g
= velocity of the fluid, = acceleration due to gravity and
For the data gathering of the experiment the head in the tank was z = elevation head with respect to the datum plane.
adjusted to the preferred setting with the use of the control crank
lever. The head was set to the following variations: 110cm, 75cm, Flow Rate and Velocity Head
and 45cm. The piezometer tubes located at various specific points
in the pipe 1 were used to measure the pressure head of the points Volume flow rate is the volume of the liquid that passes through a
of the pipelines. The data for the volume flow rate of the pipe was given surface per unit time. It is the product of area and velocity
obtained using the manual method of getting the flow rate by of the liquid, can be calculated as:
getting the time it took to completely fill the bucket of 12 Liters.
Q=VA (3)
Table 1. Hydraulic Head and Total Head at various points of
pipeline 1
Velocity Head is the head required to produce the flow of fluid.
Location Hydraulic Head (cm) Total Head (cm)
110 70 45 110 70 45 2
0-tank 324 284 259 324 284 259 V (4)
a 199 182 168 218 200 177
hv=
2g
b 194 177 162 213 195 171
c 182 170 153 198 179 166
d 175 160 143 188 172 156
e 137 130 126 156 139 139
f 129 124 120 148 133 133
Hydraulic and Energy grade lines

Table 2. Hydraulic Head and Total Head at various points of Hydraulic head and energy grade lines are graphical
pipeline 1 (Courtesy of Despi, Lobitana and Cudias) representations of Bernoullis Equation.

Location Hydraulic Head (cm) Total Head (cm)

110 70 45 110 70 45
0-tank 324 284 259 324 284 259
a 199 182 164 218 200 177
b 194 177 157 213 195 170

Fig. 3 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 1 with
variable initial head
 tan ab cd ef

Figure 5 and figure 6 shows the comparison of the EGL and HGL
curves of our group and the group of Despi et al. The same result
as of the pipeline 1 the dissipation of energy throughout the
pipeline 2 occurs but the difference is just it has only a pair of
piezometer which is a and b as labeled.

Fig. 4 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 1 with
variable initial head (Image Courtesy: Despi, Lobitana and Cudias)
tan a f g h
bcde
Figure 3 and figure 4 shows the EGL and HGL curve of our group
and the group of Despi, Lobitana and Cudias as it was labeled Fig. 7 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 3 with
above. variable initial head

The behavior of the HGL and EGL for the pipeline 1 is the same
for the both of our groups since it can be observed that there is a
decrease in the hydraulic head and total head. This implies that
there is a little by little dissipation of energy throughout the
pipeline 1.

Fig. 8 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 3

with variable initial head (Image Courtesy: Despi, Lobitana and
Cudias)

tan a b c
Figure 7 and figure 8 shows the EGL and HGL curve of our group
and the group of Despi et al. In this set-up, for pipeline 3,
Fig. 5 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 2 with compared to pipeline 1 and 2, there are many fittings that was
variable initial head connected to the pipeline. It was labeled in the EGL and HGL
curve as b, c, d, and e.

Conclusions

Fig. 6 Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Line of pipeline 2 with
variable initial head (Image Courtesy: Despi, Lobitana and Cudias)
In this experiment the energy analysis of pipes and fittings were Wu, J., Wang, Y., Zhang, W., Nie, Z., Lin, R., and Ma, H. (2016).
determined using the Energy Grade Line and Hydraulic Grade Defect detection of pipes using Lyapunov dimension of
Line curves. The different pipelines have different initial head Duffing oscillator based on ultrasonic guided waves.
setting from the overhead water tank through the discharge of the Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing., 82, 130-147.
pipeline. Energy grade line is the total head at certain points in the
pipeline; it is the representation of the transformation of energy
from which potential energy is generated due to the elevation of
the water into kinetic energy which is manifested by the flow of
water or the velocity it experience. Hydraulic grade line follows
the trend of energy grade line, such that when the initial head
setting of the fluid, increases, the magnitude of the hydraulic
grade line along the pipe system also increases then as the fluid
flow throughout the pipe system, the hydraulic grade line
gradually decreases this is due to the friction between the fluid
which creates turbulence, and the disturbance of the fluid flow
when it passes through valves and fitting components. As the
HGL and EGL was compared to the data of the group of Despi et
al. the data that we gathered was verified. The same trend in
which there is a downward slope that can be observed in the both
EGL and HGL curves implies that there is a presence of energy
loss of the flowing fluid in the pipeline.

Notations

The following symbols are used in this paper:

V = Velocity of the fluid

z = Elevation head

g = Acceleration due to gravity

A = Cross-sectional area of the pipe

P = fluid pressure

= specific weight

Q = volume flow rate of the fluid

hv = velocity head

References

Gao, Y., Sui, F., Muggleton, J. M., and Yang, J. (2016).

Simplified dispersion relationships for fluid-dominated
axisymmetric wave motion in buried fluid-filled pipes.
Journal of Sound and Vibration., 375, 386-402.
Zhang, T., Ouyang, H., Zhang, Y. O., and Lv, B. L. (2016).
Nonlinear dynamics of straight fluid-conveying pipes with
general boundary conditions and additional springs and
masses. Applied Mathematical Modeling., 40, 7880-7900.
Li, C., Fu, G., and Yang, W. (2016). Stress intensity factors for
inclined external surface cracks in pressurized pipes.
Engineering Fracture Mechanics., 165, 72-86.
APPENDIX

Table 3. Hydraulic Head and Total Head at various points of

pipeline 2
Location Hydraulic Head (cm) Total Head (cm)
110 70 45 110 70 45
0-tank 324 284 259 324 284 259
a 131 117 118 139 126 129
b 120 112 109 178 121 120
c 103 92 92 111 101 103

Table 4. Hydraulic Head and Total Head at various points of

pipeline 1
Location Hydraulic Head (cm) Total Head (cm)
110 70 45 110 70 45
0-tank 324 284 259 324 284 259
a 305 242 240 308 260 248
b 117 110 106 120 128 114
c 144 133 126 147 110 129
d 150 138 131 153 136 134
e 156 142 135 159 145 138
f 153 139 132 157 142 135
g 122 120 118 125 138 126
h 96 94 94 99 112 102