Water Pipe Size and Flow

name
status
grade
location

James
student
9-12
TX

Question I was designing a water system for

cattle(4H). Basically I am going to tap into a water
pipeline, and run a much smaller pipe to a storage
tank. The pressure would remain constant in the big
pipe since it is a huge pipe. I could find the
pressure in it also (250 psi). I know: length of my
pipe running off of the main line (2 miles); the
diameter (2 inches), a textbook told me the viscosity
(.01kg/m/s), and the rise in the elevation 200 feet.
I found an equation but it talks about the velocity
of the water and I do not know how to add that into
my equation. I would like to know how much volume I
will get at the end of the line.
--------------------------------------Civil engineering covers hydraulics, and maybe while
in school I could have dealt with the problem, now I
would go to our hydraulics or mechanical people.
For whatever help here are my thoughts, there are
many factors affecting the flow, there will be
friction losses in the 2 mile pipe. Overcoming
gravity for a 200 foot rise will impact the flow. It
sounds like the pipe is exposed, so that can add
thermal impacts. Any loss in the jointing, that is
not one stretch of pipe. Being a "take off" from
the main pipe, can add some flow effects that could
affect the initial pressure. There are tutorials on
the web for designing pumps. It may be an approach
to work backwards, find the pump and therefore the
pressure to get the gallons per minute to the
destination.
James Przewoznik
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Hi James,
You wish to know what flow rate, in gallons per
minute, you can expect to discharge from the end of
your new pipe. Flow moves through pipe due to
a difference in pressure between each end. You have
a driving force of 250 psi. If we convert this to
feet of water, (multiply by 2.31) we get a driving
force of about 577.5 feet.
Now, flow through the 2" pipe will be resisted by
basically two main
effects (let us keep this simple OK?). You have the
change in elevation,
and you have the friction loss in the pipe due to the
water flowing
through it. The elevation change is simple, it is
200 feet and since we
are going uphill, we subtract this directly from the
driving force. So,
now our driving force is 377.5 feed of "head" as we
call it.
Friction loss is a little more tricky, I use an
empirical formula called
Hazen-Williams for the calculation. This formula is
H(friction) = 0.002083 * L * (100/C)^1.85 *
( gpm^1.85/d^4.8655)
Friction loss is equal to a constant times L which is
the equivalent
length of straight pipe. C is a roughness factor of
the pipe in use.
If you are using new steel pipe or smooth plastic,
use 120 here for the
value of C. Little d is the inside diameter of your
pipe in inches.
Gpm is your chosen flow rate.
So, let us figure some of this out. Equivalent
length of pipe equals the
total length of pipe plus conversion of fittings to
pipe length. For

example, a 2 inch 90 degree elbow has the same

friction loss as 5 feet
of straight pipe. In your case, you have two miles
of piping and I will
assume not a lot of turns, etc. Two miles is about
11,000 feet of pipe
so not counting a few fittings really will not make
too much of a
difference.
Little d for 2 inch steel pipe is 2.067 inches
Summary:
L = 11,000 feet
C = 120
d = 2.067
Now, we cannot calculate the friction loss without
the flow and we cannot
get the flow without the friction loss. So, we will
make a graph of
flow vs. friction loss in feet of water. Here is
what you do, choose a
flow rate, say 10 gpm. Plug it into the equation
with all of the above
values and get a friction loss. Repeat at 20, 30,
40, 50, etc. Once
you reach 100 gpm, make a graph with flow on the x
axis and friction
loss in feet on the y-axis. Plot the points and you
will see that it
makes a curve. This is called the system curve and
tells you how your
pipeline flow will react to changes in resistance.
Once you have your curve, find 377.5 feet on the yaxis and make a
straight horizontal line across the graph. At the
point it intersects
the system curve, move straight down to the X-axis
and read the flow.
This will be the flow you can expect from your
system.

Good luck, and contact me again to let me know what

your answer is or if
you have any difficulties.
Bob Hartwell

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