Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ρνd
ℜ=
µ
THEORY
Re = (pV2/L) / (µV/L2)
= pVL/µ
When a fluid flows through a pipe the internal roughness (e) of the
pipe wall can create local eddy currents within the fluid adding a
resistance to flow of the fluid. Pipes with smooth walls such as glass,
copper, brass and polyethylene have only a small effect on the frictional
resistance. Pipes with less smooth walls such as concrete, cast iron and
steel will create larger eddy currents which will sometimes have a
significant effect on the frictional resistance. The velocity profile in a
pipe will show that the fluid at the centre of the stream will move more
quickly than the fluid towards the edge of the stream. Therefore friction
will occur between layers within the fluid. Fluids with a high viscosity
will flow more slowly and will generally not support eddy currents and
therefore the internal roughness of the pipe will have no effect on the
frictional resistance. This condition is known as laminar flow.
For large viscous force, whereby Re value is less than 2300, viscous
effects are great enough to damp any disturbance in the flow and the flow
remains laminar. The flow is called laminar because the flow takes place
in layers. Any combination of low velocity, small diameter, or high
kinematic viscosity which results in R e value of less than 2300 will
produce laminar flow. As Re increases, the viscous damping of flow
disturbances or perturbations decreases relative to the inertial effects.
Because of a lack of viscous damping, disturbances are amplified until the
entire flow breaks down into in irregular motion. There is still a definite
flow direction, but there is an irregular motion superimposed on the
average motion. Thus, for turbulent flow in a pipe, the fluid is flowing in
the downstream direction, but fluid particles have an irregular motion in
addition to the average motion. The turbulent fluctuations are inherently
unsteady and three dimensional. As a result, particles which pass though a
given point in the flow do not follow the same path in turbulent flow even
though they all are flowing generally downstream. Flows with 2000 < Re
< 4000 are called transitional. The flow can be unstable and the flow
switch back and forth between turbulent and laminar conditions.
APPARATUS
* Water supply from a tank with clear test section tube and “bell mouth”
entrance.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
1. Firstly, the apparatus is set up and insert the red dye into the dye
reservoir with a steady flow of water.
2. The dye is allowed to flow from the nozzle at the entrance of the
channel until a colored stream is visible along the passage. The
velocity of water flow should be increased if the dye accumulates
around the nozzle.
3. Adjust the water flow until a laminar flow pattern which is a
straight thin line or streamline of dye is able to be seen along the
whole passage.
4. Collect the volume of water that flows for 10 seconds then measure
the amount of water in the volumetric measuring tank. Repeat this
step 3 times to get the average and more accurate volume of water.
The volume flow rate is calculated from the volume and a known
time.
5. The water flow rate is increased by opening the pipe vessel and the
flow pattern of the fluid is observed. Repeat step 2-4 for transition
and turbulent flow.
6. Clean all the apparatus after the experiment is done.
RESULTS
SAMPLE CALCULATIONS
Volume Flow Rate Velocity, V Reynolds
Time (s) Type of Flow
( × 10-5 m3) ( × 10-5 m3/s) (m/s) No.
Times = 3 sec
Length, l = 0.103 m
= π (16 x 10ˉ0³) / 4
= 2.0106 x 10ˉ4 m²
From experiment:
Laminar Flow:
= 8.4 x 10-5 m3 / 3s
= 0.1393 m/s
Transition Flow:
= 9.6 x 10-5 m3 ÷ 3s
= 0.1592 m/s
= 2547.2
= 0.2785 m/s
= 4456.0
DISCUSSION
Throughout the experiment, we observed that the red dye line starts
flowing in a straight ordered line through the glass tube, and as the
velocity increases after some time, the ordered streamlines is seen to
begin to disperse at about the middle of the streamlines, but still remain
the straight line at the earlier part. Next, the dispersion started to
increase, indicating the turbulent flow. These observations are concluded
as the streamlines is undergoing a change of type of flow, which is from
laminar flow, transition flow to turbulent flow.
There are a few careless mistakes that have been done during this
experiment. Most of all, the accuracy of collecting the fluid flowing out
of the tube within 3 seconds is a bit inaccurate. The one who collect the
fluid might not begin right when the person monitoring the stopwatch
started ticking on it, and he/she might also not stop collecting exactly
after the third second. Therefore, the values calculated in results section
might not be exactly 100% correct.
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS
Check whether the water in the tube flows in a correct way and we
should also make sure that the flow is stable before measuring the
flow rate by monitoring the time taken for collecting an amount of
water in the volumetric measuring tank.
Before injecting the dye into the fluid, we should make sure the dye
is not too much and not too insufficient. It will be hard to stable the
fluid to get a laminar flow.
The person collecting the water should synchronize well with the
time keeper.
REFERENCES
APPENDICES