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Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Hazen Williams formula for use in fire sprinkler systems
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The Hazen Williams formula for use in fire sprinkler systems
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The Hazen Williams formula is an empirical equation and has long been used for calculating the friction loss in pipework for water
Support based fire sprinkler protection systems. This equation uses the coefficient C to specify the pipes roughness, which is not based on
a function of the Reynolds number, as in other pressure loss equations. This however has the disadvantage that the equation can
Training only be used when water is flowing within the ‘turbulent' flow range. If the system is outside the normal pressure and flow range or
the system is to use additives, or will be subject to unusual temperature conditions then the Darcy Weisbach equation may be more
Document Centre appropriate.

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The Hazen Williams formula has the advantage of been simple to calculate by using a scientific calculator where as the Darcy
Support Desk Weisbach equation requires the use ‘f' friction factor and this can only be calculated by an number of iterations as ‘f' is on both sides
of the equation. You can use a Moody diagram to find the value of ‘f' however this is both time consuming and almost certainly and
FAQ's inaccurate method.

Basic Hydraulics The Hazen William formula has now become adopted through the world as the pressure loss formula to use for the hydraulic design
of fire sprinkler systems and in almost all cases the use of the hazen william formula will provide adequate answers. The Hazen
Hcalc: Calculator William formula can also be used for the calculation of water mist systems where the system pressure does not exceed 12 bar (low
pressure water mist systems) or the water velocity does not exceed 7.6 m/s and the minimum pipe size is 20mm in the case of
News intermediate and high pressure water mist systems.

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when p = pressure loss in bar per meter

Q = flow through the pipe in L/min
C = friction loss coefficient
d = internal diameter of the pipe in mm

You can use Canute Hcalc software (hydraulic calculator) to visually explore the relationship between the flow, pipe
diameter and the pipe c-factor in the Hazen Williams formula which will give you a good understanding of the formula. The
Hcalc software is free to download and use.

Value of C for use in the Hazen-Williams formula

Listed in the table bellow are typical values for the coefficient C, which can be used in the Hazen-Williams formula for different fire
sprinkler design standards. The value of C represents the pipes roughness with higher values of C giving lower friction losses. The
values given in the design standards allow for degradation of the pipe, for instance new cast iron pipe has a C coefficient of 130
and EN 12845 gives the value of 100, this is equivalent to a pipe, which is about 20 years old.

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