Part 4: The Continuity Equation for Multiple
Pipe System
The rule for multiple flow paths for
incompressible fluids is:
This is written mathematically as:
(10)
Consider the pipe system shown below (in
section) in Figure 3:
In this case the flow in is given by:
And the flow out is given by:
So from Equation X we can write:
(11)
This is true for any number of flows in and out.
Example 1. Characteristics of the system shown
schematically below are summarized in the
table following the schematic. (Note that, to
simplify the math, friction factors are assumed
for each pipe, rather than being calculated from
the flow conditions in the pipe.)
Water is discharged to the atmosphere
at point D.e
The system geometry is such that the
change in velocity head is negligible
compared to the change in piezometric
head between any two points of
interest,
Compute (a) the flow in each pipe and (b) the
pressures at points A and B.
Experimental Duct Flows:
Diffuser Performance
The Moody chart is such a great correlation for tubes
of any cross section with any
roughness or fl ow rate that we may be deluded into
thinking that the world of internal
fl ow prediction is at our feet. Not so. The theory is
reliable only for ducts of constant
cross section. As soon as the section varies, we must
rely principally on experiment
to determine the fl ow properties. As mentioned
many times before, experimentation
is a vital part of fl uid mechanics.
Literally thousands of papers in the literature report
experimental data for specifiinternal and external
viscous fl ows. We have already seen several
examples:
1. Vortex shedding from a cylinder (Fig. 5.2).
2. Drag of a sphere and a cylinder (Fig. 5.3).
3. Hydraulic model of a dam spillway (Fig. 5.9).
4. Rough-wall pipe fl ows (Fig. 6.12).
5. Secondary fl ow in ducts (Fig. 6.16).
6. Minor duct loss coeffi cients (Sec. 6.9).
Diffuser Performance
A diffuser, shown in Fig. 6.26a and b, is an
expansion or area increase intended to
reduce velocity in order to recover the pressure head
of the fl ow. Rouse and Ince [6] relate that it may
have been invented by customers of the early Roman
(about 100 a.d.) water supply system, where water fl
owed continuously and was billed according to pipe
size. The ingenious customers discovered that they
could increase the flrate at no extra cost by flaring the
outlet section of the pipe.
electrodes can be streamlined or built into the wall,
and they cause little or no fl ow
resistance. The output is very strong for highly
conducting fl uids such as liquid metals.
Hot-Wire Anemometer. A very fi ne wire (d 0.01
mm or less) heated between two
small probes, as in Fig. 6.29e, is ideally suited to
measure rapidly fl uctuating fl ows
such as the turbulent boundary layer.
Laser-Doppler Anemometer. In the LDA a laser
beam provides highly focused, coherent
monochromatic light that is passed through the fl ow.
When this light is scattered from a
moving particle in the fl ow, a stationary observer
can detect a change, or doppler shift,
in the frequency of the scattered light.
Particle Image Velocimetry. This popular new
idea, called PIV for short, measures not
just a single point but instead maps the entire fi eld of
fl ow. An illustration was shown
in Fig. 1.18b. The fl ow is seeded with neutrally
buoyant particles.

Fluid Meters
Electromagnetic Meter. If a magnetic fi eld is
applied across a conducting fl uid, the fl uid
motion will induce a voltage across two electrodes
placed in or near the fl ow. The