Atakan Avci

e-mail: atakan@uludag.edu.tr

A Novel Explicit Equation for Friction Factor in Smooth and Rough Pipes
In this paper, we propose a novel explicit equation for friction factor, which is valid for both smooth and rough wall turbulent ows in pipes and channels. The form of the proposed equation is based on a new logarithmic velocity prole and the model constants are obtained by using the experimental data available in the literature. The proposed equation gives the friction factor explicitly as a function of Reynolds number and relative roughness. The results indicate that the present model gives a very good prediction of the friction factor and can reproduce the Colebrook equation and its Moody plot. Therefore, the new approximation for the friction factor provides a rational, accurate, and practically useful method over the entire range of the Moody chart in terms of Reynolds number and relative roughness. DOI: 10.1115/1.3129132 Keywords: friction factor, turbulent ows, boundary layers, mathematical modeling

Irfan Karagoz
e-mail: karagoz@uludag.edu.tr Department of Mechanical Engineering, Uludag University, 16059 Bursa, Turkey

Introduction

with these data, the friction factor can be obtained as 1 f = 2.0 log ks 3.7d 4

Proper description of mean turbulent velocity proles and the calculation of friction losses are of particular interest to boundary layer researchers and engineers. The difculty to solve the turbulent ow problems lies in the fact that the friction factor is a complex function of relative surface roughness and the Reynolds number Re . Derivation of relations for the friction factor is mostly based on the logarithmic or power law formulations of velocity proles in boundary layers. The rst correlation for friction factor f is a curve t to smooth wall data collected by Blasius for pipes in 1913. The Blasius formula is f = 0.316 Re0.25 1

for fully rough pipe ows, depending on the surface roughness ks and pipe diameter d 5 . There are also several formulas for the transitional roughness region 610 . The famous relation is an implicit formula proposed by Colebrook in 1939 11 as 1 f = 2.0 log 2.51 ks + 3.7d Re f 5

This equation has a limited range of applicability. It is widely accepted that the Blasius friction relationship gives the best representation of friction factor data of available formulations for Re 100 103. Prandtl 1 derived a better formula from the logarithmic velocity prole and experimental data on smooth pipes as follows: 1 f = 2.0 log Re f 0.8 2

The plot of this formula is known as the Moody chart and is widely used for pipe friction. As an alternative to this implicit equation, an explicit formula was given by Haaland 12 as follows: 1 f = 1.8 log ks 3.7d
1.11

6.9 Re

Although this formula is valid for Re 4000, it is implicit and needs iterative solution for f. Recent studies show that the constants of Prandtls universal friction factor relationship are accurate over only a limited Reynolds-number range and are unsuitable for extrapolation to high-Reynolds numbers 2,3 . McKeon et al. 3 proposed an expression, which well represents the friction factor data, including correction for the viscous deviation from the log law at the wall by 1 f = 1.920 log Re f 0.475 7.04 Re f
0.55

The development of approximate equations for the calculation of friction factor in rough pipes began with Nikuradses turbulent pipe ow investigations in 1932 4 . Using the logarithmic law
Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division of ASME for publication in the JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING. Manuscript received July 7, 2008; nal manuscript received March 24, 2009; published online May 13, 2009. Assoc. Editor: James A. Liburdy.

which differs less than 2% from the Colebrook formula. More information can be found in related literature 13 . By using high-Reynolds-number pipe-ow data, McKeon concluded that power laws and logarithmic friction factor relationships well represent experimental data for limited ranges of Reynolds number. In this study, a new formula has been developed for the friction factor in turbulent pipe ows. Derivation of this explicit formula is based on the modied mixing length theory. In order to gain insight into the models reliability, the results of the model were compared with available experimental data. It was shown that this equation can be used for the wide ranges of Reynolds number 5 103 Re 1 108 and relative roughness 0 0.05. The proposed equation can also be employed for turbulent ow in channels, by using the Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter.

Mathematical Modeling

Derivation of relations for the friction factor is mostly based on the logarithmic or power law formulations of velocity proles in boundary layers. JUNE 2009, Vol. 131 / 061203-1

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It is well know that in the overlap region, velocity u varies logarithmically with y coordinate perpendicular to the surface and can be written in dimensionless form as 1416 yu u 1 = ln u +B 7

where u = w / , w is the wall shear stress, is the uid density, is the kinematic viscosity, known as the von Karman constant and B are constants for turbulent ow past smooth impermeable walls. Although these constants are claimed to be universal, different values for these constant are often reported in the literature 1719 . Alternatively, the velocity prole can be assumed to obey a power law, which may be written as yu u =C u 8
Fig. 1 Comparison of the present friction factor with literature values over an intermediate range of Reynolds numbers

where the factor C and the exponent are empirically determined parameters, which are often assumed to be Reynolds number dependent 20 . However, some researchers have pointed out that both the multiplicative factor and the exponent are Reynolds number independent and given by C = 8.48 and = 0.142 18,21 , which are very close to the values known from Nikuradses 4 1/7th-power law. However, these parameters are often assumed to be Reynolds number dependent. We propose a new relation for the velocity prole as u = K ln yu / u +p
n

f= a ln
2

8 Re

2b

14

which is a combination of logarithmic and power low velocity proles. For turbulent ows in pipes, taking y = R r, Eq. 9 can be written as Rr u u = K ln u
n

This equation is very simple, however the constants a, b, and , which is a function of Re and , should be determined such that Eq. 14 covers the entire range of Re and as in the case of the Moody chart for turbulent ows in pipes and channels. It is possible to assume that is a constant for smooth pipes and is a function of Re and , otherwise. For smooth pipes, = 1 and the values of a 1.118 and b 1.2 are obtained from curve t to the experimental data available in the literature. Therefore, the friction factor is obtained as f= 6.4 ln Re
2.4

15

+p

10

where n, K, and p should be determined experimentally. By inserting r = 0 in Eq. 10 , the maximum velocity can be calculated as umax Ru = K ln u
n

for smooth pipes. Since the inuence of the Reynolds number on the friction factor dies out and the role of the relative roughness becomes dominant at high-Reynolds number ows, the following form is proposed for in Eq. 14 : = 1 + c Re 1+d 16

+p

11

The velocity prole represented by Eq. 10 can be used for the calculation of friction factor. For this aim, Eq. 10 should be integrated in order to get the mean velocity in a pipe, which has a radius of R = d / 2. Since integration of this equation is not easy, it is assumed that the mean velocity V is a fraction of the maximum velocity and the equation for mean velocity has the same form as in Eq. 11 with different constants. Consequently, the mean velocity can be written as Re V = a ln u
b

where c and d are constants to be determined from experiments. This relation is also identical to Eq. 15 when = 1 for smooth pipes. Through the tests with experimental data available in the literature show that the best t to the experimental data of Nikuradse and to the Moody chart is obtained with c 0.01 and d 10. Therefore, the nal equation for the calculation of the friction factor can be written as f= 6.4 ln Re ln 1 + 0.01 Re 1 + 10
2.4

17

12

which is valid for both smooth and rough pipes and channels, and covers the entire range of the Moody chart for turbulent ow. In the case of channel ows, the hydraulic diameter can be used as characteristic length to compute the Reynolds number and the relative roughness.

where Re= Vd / is the Reynolds number, and is a parameter and might be a function of Re and the relative roughness = ks / d. In this derivation, the term Ru / in the parenthesis is approximated as a logarithmic function of Re number. On the other hand, the friction factor is dened as f= =8
u 2 V

Results and Discussion

1 8

V2

13

and therefore Eq. 12 can be rewritten in terms of the friction factor as follows: 061203-2 / Vol. 131, JUNE 2009

An alternative explicit equation for the friction factor is derived for turbulent pipe and channel ows. Since Eq. 15 for smooth pipes was directly derived from the mean velocity equation Eq. 12 , justication of Eq. 15 was considered before going further. As can be seen from Fig. 1, the results obtained from this equation show very good agreement with experimental data given in the literature 4,21,22 . It should also be note that this explicit equation gives results, which are indistinguishable from the solution of the well known implicit Prandtl equation Eq. 2 . Transactions of the ASME

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Fig. 2 Consistency check of the present formula over a wide range of Reynolds numbers

In order to obtain the constants of Prandtls friction formula, the pipes friction data of Zanoun et al. 22 and Nikuradse 4 were plotted as in Fig. 2. This gure was also used to test the present formula. As can be seen from Fig. 2, good agreement was also observed when the present formula was compared with the experimental data of Nikuradse and Zanoun et al., for the range of Reynolds number 2 105 Re 3.2 106. By using the experimental data included in Fig. 2, Zanoun et al. 22 estimated the value of the numerical constants of the Prandtl formula Eq. 2 to be approximately 1.93 and 0.414, instead of 2.0 and 0.8, resulting in a value of 0.421 for the von Karman constant. The Moody chart was reproduced by using Eq. 17 , which is the extension of Eq. 15 for turbulent ows in pipes or channels Fig. 3 . The Princeton superpipe data for the Reynolds number from 3.2 104 to 3.5 107 were included in the gure. A very good agreement can be observed between the predicted values and these experimental values 21 for smooth pipe ow. Some experimental values of rough walls were also included in this gure for comparison. As can be seen from the gure, the present formula

produced the Moody chart well for the wide ranges of Reynolds number 5 103 Re 1 108, and relative roughness 0 0.05. Differences between the present formula and the experimental values remain no bigger than 3% for these ranges.

Conclusion

A new mathematical friction factor model for fully developed turbulent internal ows has been developed by using a new velocity prole, which is a combination of logarithmic and power law proles. The formula recovers Prandtls law of friction for smooth pipes well. The model also shows good correlation with the available data for turbulent ows in rough pipes for wide ranges of Reynolds number and surface roughness covering the entire Moody chart. The maximum relative error between the published experimental friction factors and those calculated from the developed equation was found to be less than 3%, and the proposed relationship agrees with the Blasius relationship for low Reynolds numbers to within 1%. Therefore the proposed equation can be

Fig. 3 Comparison of friction factor calculated from Eq. 17 with the Princeton superpipe data and bbb and experimental data , , 23

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used to calculate friction losses in smooth or rough pipes and channels as an alternative to the Moody chart and to the other implicit formulas.

References
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12 Haaland, S. E., 1983, Simple and Explicit Formulas for the Skin Friction in Turbulent Pipe Flow, ASME J. Fluids Eng., 105, pp. 8990. 13 Romeo, E., Royo, C., and Monzon, A., 2002, Improved Explicit Equations for Estimation of the Friction Factor in Rough and Smooth Pipes, Chem. Eng. J., 86, pp. 369374. 14 Prandtl, L., 1932, Zur turbulenten strmung in rohren und langs platten, Ergebnisse der Aerodynamischen Versuchsanstalt zu Gottingen, 4, pp. 1829. 15 von Karman, T., 1930, Mechanische ahnlichkeit und turbulenz, Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Goettingen, Math.-Phys. Kl., 5, pp. 5876. 16 Millikan, C. M., 1938, A Critical Discussion of Turbulent Flows in Channels and Circular Tubes, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress on Applied Mechanics, pp. 386392. 17 Zanoun, E. S., Durst, F., and Nagib, H. M., 2003, Evaluating the Law of the Wall in Two-Dimensional Fully Developed Turbulent Channel Flows, Phys. Fluids, 15, pp. 30793089. 18 McKeon, B. J., Li, J., Jiang, W., Morrison, J. F., and Smits, A. J., 2004, Further Observations on the Mean Velocity Distribution in Fully Developed Pipe Flow, J. Fluid Mech., 501, pp. 135147. 19 Wosnik, M., Castillo, L., and George, W. K., 2000, A Theory for Turbulent Pipe and Channel Flows, J. Fluid Mech., 421, pp. 11545. 20 Clauser, F. H., 1956, The Turbulent Boundary Layer, Adv. Appl. Mech., 4, pp. 151. 21 Zagarola, M. V., and Smits, A. J., 1998, Mean-Flow Scaling of Turbulent Pipe Flow, J. Fluid Mech., 373, pp. 3379. 22 Zanoun, E. S., Durst, F., Bayoumy, O., and Al-Salaymeh, A., 2007, Wall Skin Friction and Mean Velocity Proles of Fully Developed Turbulent Pipe Flows, Exp. Therm. Fluid Sci., 32, pp. 249261. 23 Moody, L. F., 1944, Friction Factors for Pipe Flow, Trans. ASME, 66, pp. 671684.

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