ACCURATE SOLUTIONS OF COLEBROOK- WHITE’S FRICTION FACTOR FORMULAE

Authors

  • S Lukman CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF HAFR AL-BATIN, HAFR AL-BATIN, SAUDI ARABIA
  • IA Oke CIVIL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT, OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY, ILE-IFE, OSUN STATE. NIGERIA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/njt.364.1471

Keywords:

Friction factor, MSC, AIC, Reynolds number, Engineering Field, pipe flow, statistical methods.

Abstract

Estimations of friction factor (Ff) in pipeline systems and fluid transport are essential ingredients in engineering fields and processes. In this paper explicit friction factor formulae (Fff) were proposed and evaluated with an aim of developing error free Fff. General Fff that relate Ff, Reynolds number (Re) and relative roughness (Rr) were proposed. Colebrook – White’s formula was used to compute different Ff   for Re between 4 x 103 and 1.704 x 108, and Rr between 1.0 x 10-7 and 0.052 using Microsoft Excel Solver to fix the Fff. The fixed Fff  were used to compute Ff  for Re between 4 x 103 and 1.704 x 108 and Rr between 1.0 x 10-7  and 0.052. Accuracy of the fixed Fff  was evaluated using relative error; model of selection (MSC) and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) and compared with the previous Fff using Colebrook –White’s Ff as the reference. The study revealed that Ff estimated using the fixed Fff  were the same as Ff estimated using Colebrook – White’s Fff. The fixed Fff  provided the lowest relative error of (0.02 %; 0.06 % and 0.04 % ), the highest MSC (14.03; 12.42 and 13.07); and the lowest AIC (-73006; -64580 and -67982). The study concluded that modeling of Fff using numerical methods and Microsoft Excel Solver are better tools for estimating Ff in pipeline  flow problems.

 

 

http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v36i4.8

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Published

2017-09-29

Issue

Section

Building, Civil & Geotechnical Engineering

How to Cite

ACCURATE SOLUTIONS OF COLEBROOK- WHITE’S FRICTION FACTOR FORMULAE. (2017). Nigerian Journal of Technology, 36(4), 1039-1048. https://doi.org/10.4314/njt.364.1471