HEAD LOSS

DUE TO
FRICTION IN
CIRCULAR
PIPE
The Darcy equation gives the head loss in
turbulent flow for a circular pipe.

hf = 4 f l x c2
d 2g

Where:

f is the friction factor

l is the length of pipe being consider
d is the pipe diameter
c is the mean velocity of the fluid
The friction factor f depends on the velocity of flow,
the pipe diameter, the fluid density and viscosity and
the roughness of the pipe.

One mean of calculating the friction factor (for

turbulent flow is smooth pipes) is to use the Blasius
equation:

f = 0.079/Re 1/4

This is accurate within + 5% for smooth pipes at

Reynolds numbers less than 100 000
In order to calculate losses for a larger range
of Reynolds numbers and pipe roughness we
need to use the Moody Chart. This is a graph
of the friction factor f against Reynolds
numbers for various values of k/d, where k is
a measure of the wall roughness and d is the
pipe diameter.
From the Moody chart we can see that there
are 3 regions which can be considered when
attempting to gain a value for f.

Laminar flow – f = 16/Re (Up to Re = 2000)

For pipe roughness k/d value less than 0.001,

the Blasius equation can

f = 0.0079
Re1/4

For high k/d values or high Reynolds numbers

we need to use the

appropriate k/d value and Reynolds number

Example
Water with a coefficient of dynamic viscosity of 1.4 x 10-3
NS/m2 flows along a pipe 50mm diameter. If the pipe has
an absolute roughness of 0.0000 7m, calculate:

The power required to overcome friction per km of pipe

(a) For a flow rate of 3 litres/min

(b) For a flow rate of 40 litres/min

1(a) For a flow rate of 3 litres/min

Calculate the Reynolds number to determine whether

the flow is laminar or turbulent
This is less than 2000, therefore the flow is laminar,
and we can use the equation

f = 16
Re

= 16 = 0.0146
1096

hf = 4 f l c2
2gd

= 4 x 0.0146 x 1000 x 0.0252

2 x 9.81 x 0.05

= 0.037 m of water
1(b) For a flow rate of 40 litres/min

(i)Q= [40/(1000 x 60) = 6.67 x 10-4 m3/s

C= Q/A = [(6.67 x 10-4 x 4)/(π x .052)

= 0.34 m/s

Re = cd
μ

= 1000 x 0.34 x 0.05

1.14 x 10-3

= 14912