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Colebrook & White equation is widely used for calculating the friction factor in turbulent flows. The equation is difficult to
be solved by hand, but with nowadays computers we can overcome this difficulty very fast. The equation is written
below:
Where:
f: friction factor [-]
: roughness [m]
Dh : hydraulic diameter - for pipes is equal to the internal diameter [m]
Re: Reynolds number [-]
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Where:
V: mean velocity of the flow in the pipe [m/s]
L: pipe length [m]
: dynamic viscosity of the fluid [kg/(ms)]
Solutions
Open A PDF File With VBA
Here we will discuss about five different approaches to the above equation. The degree of accuracy differs for each
approach, as well as the level of difficulty.
1. Iteration process
By changing the values of friction factor we can find the solution using the trial and error method. However, this can
easily be done in an Excel worksheet using goal seek.
The Swamee Jains equation is used in order to find directly the friction factor in a full-flowing circular pipe. It is an
approximation of the Colebrook & Whites equation.
3. Haaland's equation
Haaland in 1983 simplified the Colebrook & Whites equation to the following equation:
4. Serghides' equations
The last two solutions are more complicated since they approach the problem with a set of equations. Serghides'
solution was based on Steffensen's method
. The solution involves the calculation of three intermediate values first and
then substituting those values into a final equation.
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Goudar Sonnads set of equations is the most complicated of all the solutions since there are a lot of intermediate
values that should be calculated before the final equation. This set of equations is given below:
Considering that the iteration process gives the most accurate results, I have developed an Excel workbook in order to
experiment on the other four solutions/methods. So, with this workbook you can try it yourself and see which approach
gives results that are closer to the iteration process results.
How to use it
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In the first sheet (named Solutions) fill all the green cells and press the Solve Equation button. If the flow in the pipe
is turbulent, the sheet will automatically calculate the friction factor with the five different methods that described above.
If you press one of the buttons named Roughness, Diameter, Velocity or Viscosity you will be transferred to the
corresponding sheet. There you can play (loop calculation) with the corresponding parameter and see how the results
of five methods are affected from the parameters change. Furthermore, in each sheet there is also a chart which
depicts the results of your loops.
Downloads
This file can be opened with Excel 2007 or newer. For best results, go to File -> Options -> Formulas tab and put
Maximum Iteration = 30000 (max value is 32767) and Maximum Change = 0.00001 (or even smaller).
Read also
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Christos Samaras
Mechanical Engineer (Ph.D. cand.), M.Sc. Cranfield University, Dipl.-Ing. Aristotle University, Thessaloniki - Greece.
Communication: tel. +30-6973513308, e-mail , Facebook , Twitter , Google+ and Linkedin. Full CV here.
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4 months ago
Christos Samaras
Admin
Otieno Otieno D
9 months ago
Christos Samaras
Admin
You 're welcome, Otieno! It's good to know that it was useful to someone.
Best Regards,
Christos
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Bkash
9 months ago
Christos Samaras
Admin
mike
a year ago
how to solve the colebrook equation by just hand calculating? i find no way. any idea?
thanks.
Reply Share
Christos Samaras
Admin
Mike, all these equations, as well the equations on the other post are in reality
approximations of Coolebrook-White formula. You cannot solve CoolebrookWhite formula by hand, but you can solve the other formulas by hand. And as
Wikipedia writes The Colebrook equation used to be solved numerically due to
its apparent implicit nature.
Reply Share
Vincent Carpenter
Christos. Kindly note you can solve CW by hand, it just takes a while.
Typically three iterations are required if the first guesstimate is
reasonable.
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Christos Samaras
Admin
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jack
a year ago
Christos Samaras
Admin
jack
a year ago
hi chris
I just want know why Colebrook equation is the most
1
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Christos Samaras
Admin
Hi Jack,
Sorry, but I cannot understand the question. Your comment was somehow cut in
the middle.
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Christos Samaras
a year ago
Hi ma65p,
A short answer will be that the most accurate equation depends on the input
parameters.
I think that the iterative process gives the best results. Then are probably the Goudar
Sonnad and Serghides' equations. Excluding the iterative process, the results are
strongly depended on input parameters (roughness, diameter, fluid velocity etc.), so in
some cases maybe the Goudar Sonnad is better, while on others the Serghides.
Because this is unclear, you can run the other sheets of this workbook in order to
perform a parametric analysis and see which equation is better for your case.
You can check also this workbook that has more equations.
Kind Regards,
Christos
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ma65p
a year ago
Thank you for the spreadsheet. However, what was your conclusion as to which
approximation was the most accurate?
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