Objective: The purpose of this lab is to perform velocity measurements in the towing tank using

a Pitot – static tube also known as Prandtl tube. Velocity is an important flow property in almost
all engineering fields especially in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering because it can be
applied to determine pressure forces on the ship’s hull, predict a ship’s resistance and subsequently
predict a ship’s power requirements.
Theory: A Pitot tube consists of two tubes inserted into a pipe which is placed in the direction of
a

Figure 1 – Pitot tube configuration (google)

fluid flow as shown below in figures 1 and 2.

Figure 3 Actual Pitot tube used for this experiment

Figure 2 Pitot Tube (Hall, 2015)
As observed in figure 2, the principle of operation is based on Bernoulli’s equation and the pressure
measurement is performed in the following way:
The fluid travels down the center of the tube to the pressure transducer and is measured as total
pressure. Two other holes exist on the top and the bottom of the tube a few inches behind the tip.
These holes also travel to the pressure transducer and represent the static pressure. The pressure
transducer then measures the difference between total pressure and static pressure.
Once the pressure difference is known, the velocity can be calculated using the Bernoulli equation.
The Bernoulli equation can be applied here because water is incompressible and the pressure
changes are measured along a streamline. The Bernoulli equation is as follows:
p V2
1. + + gh = constant
ρ 2
The third term represents the potential energy. The change in height is neglected between the tip
and the static holes, so the potential energy is ignored. Including the two points on the streamline
gives the following equation:
p0 V02 p V 2
2. + = +
ρ 2 ρ 2
Let "V" be the velocity at point "2" in figure 1 above. This is where the static pressure "p" is
measured. Consider point "1" in figure 1 above. This represents a stagnation point where the flow
velocity "V0 " is 0. However there still exists a stagnation pressure "p0 ". After the rearrangement
of some terms, the equation now becomes:
1 2
3. ρV = p0 − p
2
From here, the equation can be solved for the flow velocity.

2(p0 − p)
4. V = √
ρ
Equipment and Procedure:
The University of New Orleans towing tank has a length of 120 feet, width of 15 feet, and water
depth of 73 inches. The Pitot tubes are attached to a carriage that runs on rails along the length of
the tank. Also attached to the carriage is a computer to measure results. The carriage is powered
by an electric motor that has capabilities of moving the carriage at a maximum of 10 feet per
second. The testing set-up diagram is shown in figure 4:

Figure 4 Experiment setup

 Figure 5- Pitot Tubes in position

The Pitot tube is mounted upside down as it’s shown here. It has a small orifice at the forward end,
and a secondary one at the side. Each of the holes coincides with one of the tubes. These tubes are
connected to the strain gauge through plastic tubes that are filled with water. The sensor is on the
carriage while the Pitot tube is dragged in the water.
The following equipment was used for the experiment:
 Towing Tank Carriage: This carriage is a stable platform where models and sensors may
be mounted. The carriage has the capability of moving at any desired speed up to 10 feet
per second. The velocity input is typed in rpm units where 168 rpm is equivalent to 1
feet/second. The maximum rpm is 1690 rpm.

 Pitot tube: The main component of the experiment, this piece of equipment is used to
channel two different pressure measurements to the pressure difference gauge, and is the
only partly submerged in water.
  Acquisition software: The computer software is linked to the carriage which is used to
record all data. Information can be recorded and saved. The program also allows the user
to only consider certain intervals of time to calculate the mean values.

 Wheatstone bridge sensor: A Wheatstone bridge is used to find unknown resistances. The
unknown resistance is specifically the strain gauge which measures the change of
resistance due to the shrinking in cross sectional area related to Poisson’s ratio.
Procedure
In order to obtain useful data, the following steps must be done:
 Setup: The first step is to assemble the whole experiment. The Pitot tube must be firmly
attached to the carriage so avoid any vibrations. The tubes must be filled with water so that
no air is trapped inside of them or the sensor. The sensor must be linked with the computer
software so that data can be recorded.

 Runs: For this experiment 26 tests were recorded. The desired speed must be inputted into
the carriage control at a ratio of 168 rpm equal to 1 feet/second. The control must be set to
“forward” and then the green button needs to be pressed to override the security locks. The
green button can be released once it passes the security locks. It will then run at the desired
speed until it hits the next set of locks which will make it stop automatically. The same
procedure must be made to return the carriage to its original position; however, the carriage
speed must be much lower as there is limited space for slowing down when it’s going in
reverse.

 The data software must start recording about 10 seconds prior to starting the run. It should
also keep running a few seconds after stopping the carriage. The file can then be saved with
all the information. The data file can be opened so that boundaries may be set to obtain the
best mean values for speed and pressure difference.

 The experiment may be run as many times as desired. In this case, two Pitot tubes were
used at the same time to be able to record more data at once.
Data Analysis
The pretest conditions were obtained by measuring water density, water temperature and water
depth and values are presented on the table below:

Table 1 - Pretesting conditions

Table 2- Acquired data and measured velocity and relative error
 Figure 6 - Carriage Speed vs Pressure

Figure 7- Relative error

 Figure 8- Time history of pressure

Figure 9 - close up of the time history of pressure

Figure 9 - close up of the time history of the Carriage speed

 For test Run 18
Average Tube 1[in - Average Tube 2[in -
H2O] H2O]
11.814823 11.838611
Tabulated value tube 1 Tabulated value tube 2
11.812100 11.837800
Table 3 - Average of a single run

The data from the whole run was analyzed and was averaged including 269 measurements between
27.35 seconds and 34.05 seconds for both Tube 1 and Tube 2. There is a different value that was
produced by the computer software displayed under “tabulated value tube 1 and 2”. The difference
between values probably comes from the fact that the program calculated a mean value while the
average is just the sum of all values divided by the number of values. The average will consider
equally any spikes in the readings which could deviate the overall average. The mean value,
however, doesn’t take random values so much into account which can lead to better results.
It is important to note that the “constant regions” analyzed in this experiment are not perfectly
constant and have many irregularities. It is also important to note that tube 2 has many more
irregularities than tube 1. That is because the tube tended to oscillate due to the dynamic force of
the water which created the “noise” seen in the chart named “Pitot Tube 2”.
Summary
The Report includes a variety of analysis of raw data, as well as a more detailed analysis to one of
the runs specifically. Note that Run 18 was used because Run 18 had a problem and didn’t record
enough information for the analysis.
The experiment performed resulted in very accurate results according to the Pitot tube theory. The
errors of the experimental values related to the theoretical values show very little discrepancies as
shown in the Error analysis section. With a max error of 9% at very low speed. The error was
reduced as the speed of the flow around the tube increased. This created larger resistances in the
sensors, thus larger measurable readings.
The results seem to be very accurate and Pitot tubes are used in a wide range of planes and boats
to calculate the relative velocity to the medium, however, it will not produce an accurate result
with respect to geographical coordinates, because the medium might be moving.
Pitot tubes are a good way to measure flow velocity when the fluid is not very viscous. It would
be impossible to use a Pitot tube to measure the velocity of a flow of a thicker substance such as
oil. Higher viscosity would create friction on the front facing hole which would in turn give a
lower dynamic pressure reading. This would give a lower pressure difference and thus, lower
velocity readings. For this peculiar situations rotational sensors such as anemometers might be
better. If the medium is too viscous a free ship like propeller with a low angle of attack might be
useful to measure speed through rpm and pitch.
Pitot tubes are very simple sensors which can produce very good results under the right
circumstances, but they are not error free, especially at low speed where the dynamic pressure
doesn’t create a big enough ΔP. They will also fail to give an absolute velocity if the medium is
moving. It is a cheap and simple solution and can easily be mounted on most vehicles so overall
they are very useful.
References

Fox, R. and McDonald, A. (1998). Introduction to Fluid Mechanics. John Wiley & Sons.
Hall, N. (2015). Pitot-static (Prandtl) tube. https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/pitot.

html. Last accessed 2018-01-18.

Wikipedia (2016). Pitot-static system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot-static_system. Last

accessed 2018-2-8.