CHE 3222 Unit Operations Laboratory I

Application of the Bernoulli Equation (i.e. Mechanical Energy Balance)

to piping, fittings, valves, and meters
Prelab questions and the Job Safety Analysis form are due
BEFORE you can begin your lab experiment! Note, much of this
material is adapted from Incropera and DeWitt, chapter 5
Introduction
Safety
The national Chemical Safety Board has strongly emphasized increasing safety
awareness and instruction across chemical engineering and chemistry degree programs
throughout the country. In response to this we are reinforcing our longstanding safety
policies with new activities designed to increase your awareness and conduct of safe
practices during all Unit Operations laboratory activities. More details are presented
elsewhere laboratory documentation, but a few rules for working in the Unit Operations
laboratory are emphasized here:
Upon entering the laboratory, you are to put on safety glasses. They are to be
worn throughout your participation in laboratory experiments.
You MUST wear long pants and closed-toed shoes (you can use a locker,
providing your own lock). Locks will be removed (by cutting if necessary) at the
end of the semester to allow the juniors access for the spring lab section.
Absolutely NO food or drink in the lab.
Fully answer each of these questions PRIOR TO THE LAB PERIOD. Use any
fluids text and the endless variety of online resources.
1. Discuss the difference between laminar and turbulent flow. What characterizes
it? How does temperature affect flow of incompressible fluids?
2. Present the Bernoulli equation and show its reduction of terms to accurately
describe the measurement of pressure drop across a given fitting, valve or flow
meter.
3. What is the Reynolds number? How is it derived and what physical meaning
does it have? Why is it dimensionless (hint:discuss the meaning of dimensional
analysis)?
4. List three important dates in the history of plumbing systems and the significance
of those dates. (You may have to focus on something like water supply for
cities).

5. What does pipe surface roughness have to do with determining pressure losses
in piping systems? What different methods exist for calculating friction factors?
What governing
6. What procedures/calculations are used to predict pressure drop in piping
systems for incompressible fluids under Newtonian flow?
What
simiplifications/idealizations may reasonably be assumed for the mechanical
energy balance when working with water flowing in a piping system? (Be specific
in your answers)
7. Does temperature significantly affect pressure drop of water flowing in a piping
system? (Discuss in detail).
8. How do Venturi and orifice meters work?
determination of flow rate by these devices?

What principles of flow allow the

9. What is Net Positive Suction Head? Why is it important in assessing pumping of

fluids?
10. What is brake horsepower?
11. How is a pump curve determined? Is one pump curve applicable to more than
one size of pump? What limitations are there to using a pump curve?
12. Write out a stepwise procedure for running the fluid flow in piping system to
determine the pressure drops over various valves and fittings.
13. Create a table for recording all flow rates, and corresponding pressure drops for
each fitting, valve, or pipe length. Table must be organized to clearly represent
the data obtained.

Experimental Objectives
The big picture for this experiment is to measure the pressure drop across a selected
valve, fitting, length of pipe, or meter using the mercury-filled manometer on your
experimental apparatus. You will measure this pressure drop at three different flow
rates (for EACH of your different fittings, valves, etc.). Then, using the Bernoulli
equation, reduced correctly for your specific valve, fitting, pipe section, etc. you will
calculate a pressure drop predicted in this fitting based upon the frictional losses
calculated for your flow conditions in the system. Lastly, you will plot the three
calculated and three experimentally observed pressure drops in Excel (for each of the
three different flow rates measured) to see how closely the actual experimental data
correlates with the pressure drops predicted by the Bernoulli equation.

FLOW MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS

Fluid transport and flow is ubiquitous in the chemical process industries. Consequently, a chemical engineer must
understand
the
importance of concepts
like frictional losses in
pipe flows, effects of
fittings
on
pressure
losses, performance of
flow meters, etc. This
study is focused on
analyzing
flow
measurements
to
determine
pressure
drops across a variety of
pipe sizes, fittings, valves
and flow meters in a
closed-loop system.

Select flow circuit with these valves.

Do Not adjust these valves (leave open)

Our
experimental
apparatus is shown at
left.
A supply tank
(conical tank against the
far wall) supplies water
from
the
municipal
system
through
a
centrifugal pump (blue
pump seen below tank)
to a series of different
sized and types of pipes,
valves,
fittings,
and
meters.

Theoretical background
The mechanical energy balance, or Bernoulli Equation, was developed in the fluids
class. The full equation has the form

Using the image below of a pump transferring water from a Wet well to a discharge
well, we can identify the terms in the above equation. Let point a be the surface of
the water in the wet well and point b be the discharge point in the discharge well. The
terms and describe the pressure at each of these two points. The terms
and
describe the heights of points a and b above the pump Datum line. The
elevation terms are describing the potential energy on either side of the pump. The
Kinetic energy of the system (at points a and b) are described by the velocity terms.
The energy required by the pump to move the fluid through the system is described by
.

And, lastly, all of the frictional losses in the system due to the pipe roughness, the
elbows, fittings, valves, meters, etc. are described by the term . To capture all of
these frictional losses in this term, it can be expressed as

From your fluids course you should recall that the friction factor (f) or Fanning Friction
Factor is found using the Reynolds and an appropriate chart plotted for various
roughness factors (see an example at the end of this handout). It is important to note
that the MOODY Friction factor chart shown at the end of this handout is different
from the Fanning Friction factor by a factor of 4. You are expected to sort this out
and use the proper friction factor with the proper equation! The equation above
uses the Fanning Friction Factor.
Of course, the Bernoulli Equation may be applied over ANY points a and b of your
choosing. In fact, for this experiment, we are going to write the balance over just a
single fitting (or set of fittings), valve, meter, length of pipe, etc.
Pressure drop across a straight section of horizontal pipe
To begin, lets examine a situation where we are wanting to measure the energy losses
over a horizontal straight length of pipe (as will be the situation for one of your
measurements in this experiment) such as is illustrated in the diagram below. Writing
the Bernoulli balance around this
simple system. We get the
following reduction in terms:

The velocity at the pipe inlet and

exit is approximately equivalent (in
our case, though not necessarily
always). The pipe is horizontal,
therefore the potential energy
terms fall out. The pump is not between points a and b (it is outside the system as
we are defining the straight pipe)therefore that term vanishes. We are therefore left
with the above expression.
Moving the pressure terms to the left hand side we get the following:

We get a further reduction in terms because there are no fittings, valves, meters, etc.
between points a and bjust a straight pipe section.
Using the volumetric flow rate (from our meter reading) and the pipe inside diameter
(using our calipers to measure), and the pipe length between the two manometer taps
(points a and b), we can now calculate the frictional loss on the right hand side of the
equation. Note, the pressure taps across the pipe length should be the ONLY ones
open. All others must be closed to give an accurate reading of pressure drop across
the pipe section.
Getting all of the units in their correct form, we can express this frictional energy term as

though, by multiplying through by the water density, we could actually get units of
which are standard units of pressure. You will read the manometer in millimeters of

mercury (the scale applied to the manometer fluid). By converting this manometer

height you can likewise get it in pressure units of . Thus the left hand side of the
equation above represents your actual experimental data and the right hand side of the
equation represents your predicted pressure drop based upon the pipe characteristics.
Pressure drop across four 45o or 90oells (i.e. elbows)
Elsewhere in your piping network, you will find located four elbows (or ells)one set of
45o and one set of 90o. By opening the pressure taps on either side of one of these sets
(and making sure all others are closed) you can measure the pressure drop across
these ells using the mercury manometer. Again, the Bernoulli equation is reduced and
now has the form shown below

Notice that the summation term for fittings has been included. In brief, the K values
may be found in a number of ways. One easy way is to use correlations provided by a
number of sources. From the image below, we can see that the K value is plotted as a
function of the pipe diameter (in inches). Using your nominal pipe diameter (meaning
for a 1 inch Schedule 40 American standard pipe, you would use 1 inch on the x axis
belownot the precise inside diameter
measured by your calipers) you can read
from the linear curve the K value to use
in the equation above. IMPORTANT!
Notice the summation sign. Since you
will have FOUR 90o elbows in this
arrangement, you must multiply that K
value obtained from the plot by 4summing up a K value for EACH of the four
elbows.

You can then calculate the frictional loss on the right hand side of the equation just as
you did for the straight pipe length. Again, you will graphically compare that calculated
value with the measured experimental value (from the manometer) for EACH of the
three different flow rates used in your experiment.
Use the figure at left for the 45o elbows just as
you will for the 90o elbows.

Orifice plates and venture meters

Despite what you might believe, the engineering world has not completely gone to
digital instrumentation. Analog instruments (such as Orifice meters and Venturi meters)
are still widely used in industry.
The images below will help you get a better perspective on how they operate. Use your
fluids text and the numerous online resources to follow the same process we used
above for comparing observed pressure drop (from the manometer reading) to
predicted pressure drop. These calculations will need to be included in your report.

Laboratory Preparation
1. Measure and record the diameter of each pipe in the system. A small section of
each type of pipe is chained to the frame at the left hand side of the experiment
(when viewing the experiment while standing in front). Note the types of fittings,
valves and flow meters present . Note, calipers are available from the laboratory
instructor for this purpose. Compare your measured inside diameters to those
published for steel pipe (Schedule 40), and for copper tubes using the tables
provided below. Note that copper tubing is not classified by schedule, but rather
by application of use(e.g. Type L in the table below).

2. Trace the flow route from the supply tank (seen against the far wall in the picture
above) Note the large blue-handled ball valves used to open/close a given
piping circuit.
Laboratory Procedures
1. Fill up the holding tank to 2/3 full with water. Check that the appropriate valves
are open, and turn on the recirculation loop. Make sure that the bypass to the
control valve is open.
2. Set the flow loop with an arbitrarily-chosen flowrate (by setting the blue-handled
manual ball valve just downstream from the centrifugal pump).
3. At the chosen flow rate (read from the electronic meter in the blue/green housing
just upstream from the manual control valve) take pressure drop readings on the
mercury manometer from a sufficient combination of pressure taps for each pipe
length, valve, fitting or meter.
a. Determine the effect of length on pressure drop.
b. Determine the effect of pipe diameter on pressure drop.
c. Determine the pressure drop across various flow meters and valves.
Discuss the degree of pressure drop across various valve types and why it
varies.
d. Determine the effect of various piping configurations on pressure drop.
4. Repeat step 3 by adjusting the main valve to a new setting. Do this for a total of
three separate flow rates.
5. After turning the pump off and drain the holding tank.
Calculations
1. Using the appropriately reduced form of the Bernoulli mechanical energy
balance, calculate the pressure drop estimated over your selected fittings, piping
sections, valves, etc. (select at least five different items). Plot BOTH the actual,
measured pressure drop AND the predicted pressure drop (from your
calculations) versus the flow rate in properly labeled and formatted Excel
spreadsheets. Include these in your final report.
2. Discuss the comparisons of experimental observations with theoretical
calculations from the calculations in step 1. How close are your calculations to
the measured pressure drops?
3. Present the equations for predicting pressure drop using the venturi meter
coefficient and the orifice meter coefficient.

Other Information
Venturi Meter:
Orifice Meter:

Inlet Diameter:
Throat Diameter:
Internal Diameter:
Orifice Diameter:

1.610 inches
1.116 inches
1.610 inches
1.000 inches

Magnetic Flowmeter:
0 100% of Full Scale; Full Scale is 100 gpm.
Therefore the reading on the meter is in gallons per minute.
References
Any selected introductory fluids text should provide necessary material for conducting
this experiment.