Mechanical Engineering Department

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

(ENME 312)

Experiment #3

Flow Through a Venturi-Meter

Group #2

Done By:
Wadi Imseeh
Thaer Zaghal
Abdallah Labadi

ID #: 1110607
ID #: 1110754
ID #: 1111493

Instructor: Adel Abd Elkader Atef Dweik

Assistant: Eng. Tmer
Date : September 29, 2014
1

Abstract
The Venturi tube is a device used for measuring the rate of flow along a pipe. The
flow rate may be inferred from the difference in pressure in as measured by
piezometer tubes which drilled into the wall. Fluids velocity must increase as it
passes through a constriction to satisfy the principle of continuity, while its
pressure must decrease to satisfy the principle of conservation of mechanical
energy. Thus any gain in kinetic energy a fluid may occur due to its increased
velocity through a constriction is negated by a drop in pressure.
This experiment was done by adjusting the bench valve on the hydraulic bench
on the venture-meter after switching on it. At the inlet the head pressure is
maximum and minimum at the throat. The flow was calculated by collecting the
water in a tank, and measuring the time needed to fill it. Finally, the values of
hA(1) , hD(1) were measured.

Objectives

To understand the effect of the cross-sectional area on the velocities and

pressure.

Understand the way that pressure acts at any cross-section of the venturi-meter.

To calculate the flow rate (Q) at any head difference h1 and h2.

Find the venturi-meter coefficient (C) at every discharge and plot a graph between
the changes in C against Q.

Calculate the experimental pressure distribution and the ideal pressure along the
venturi-meter at two different flow rates, and plot a graph between them.

Data and calculation

Weight = 12 Kg
Table 1 - The collected data
Run

Time
(sec)

hA (1)
(mm)

hB
(mm)

hC
(mm)

hD (2)
(mm)

hE
(mm)

hF
(mm)

hG
(mm)

hH
(mm)

HJ
(mm)

hK
(mm)

hL
(mm)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

28.91
26.91
42.06
70.41
49
61
127
46
32.25
27.15

230
222
175
180
153
195
215
144
160
210

210
206
-

126
136
-

5
40
100
145
98
153
205
75
28
39

29
58
-

95
115
-

136
145
-

160
164
-

178
178
-

190
187
-

196
193
-

Calculations

1) Calculating Qth, Qexp :

-

)
(

Where:-

Where:

Where:-

2)
Where:-

3)

)
(

Where:-

4)

( )

( )

Where:-

5)

Where:(

Sample Calculations:
For run 1:

1)

)
(

2)
4

3)

4)

)
(

For Piezometer tube section B

5)

( )

( )

6)

Results
Weight = 12 Kg
Table 2 Results of calculated Cd, Qact, Qexp, Qth, (h1-h2) and
Run

Time
(s)

(mm)

h1

(mm)

h2

h1-h2

(H1-H2)

(m3/s)

(m3/s)

Q exp

Cd

28.91

230

0.225

0.47434165

0.000457

0.000416

1.097916

0.000501

26.91

222

40

0.182

0.42661458

0.000411

0.000447

0.919135

0.000377

42.06

175

100

0.075

0.27386128

0.000264

0.000286

0.92221

0.000243

70.41

49

180

145

0.035

0.18708287

0.00018

0.000171

1.054625

0.00019

153

98

0.055

0.23452079

0.000226

0.000245

0.920041

0.000208

61

195

153

0.042

0.20493902

0.000197

0.000197

1.000885

0.000197

127

215

205

0.01

0.1

9.62E-05

9.47E-05

1.016795

9.79E-05

46

144

75

0.069

0.26267851

0.000253

0.000261

0.967413

0.000245

32.25

160

28

0.132

0.36331804

0.00035

0.000373

0.938094

0.000328

10

27.15

210

39

0.171

0.41352146

0.000398

0.000443

0.898872

0.000358

(m)

Q th

Qact

(m3/s)

(h1-h2) Vs. Qth

0.0005
y = 0.001x + 3E-19
R = 1

0.00045

(H1-H2) (m)

0.0004
0.00035
0.0003
0.00025
0.0002
0.00015
0.0001
0.00005
0
0

0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

Qth (m3/s)

Fig 1 - Graph of

vs. Qth

Qth (m3/s)

Qth Vs. Qexp

0.0005
0.00045
0.0004
0.00035
0.0003
0.00025
0.0002
0.00015
0.0001
0.00005
0

y = 1.0303x + 2E-06
R = 0.96

0.00005 0.0001 0.00015 0.0002 0.00025 0.0003 0.00035 0.0004 0.00045 0.0005

Qexp (m3/s)
Fig 2 - Graph of Qth vs. Qexp

Cd Vs. Qact
1.2
1

Cd

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0

0.0001

0.0002

0.0003

0.0004

0.0005

0.0006

Qact (m3/s)

Fig 3 Graph of Cd Vs. Qact

Table 3 Results of calculated Pth and Pexp for runs 1 and 2

Tube
No.
A (1)
B
C
D (2)
E
F
G
H
J
K
L

dn

(mm)
26
23.2
18.4
16
16.8
18.47
20.16
21.84
23.53
25.24
26

an

(mm2)
530.9
422.7
265.9
201.1
221.7
268
318.8
375
435
500.8
530.9

Run 1
(mm)
230
210
126
5
29
95
136
160
178
190
196

Run 2
(mm)
222
206
136
40
58
115
145
164
178
187
193

Pth

Pa
0
-0.08286
-0.42851
-0.85652
-0.67931
-0.41958
-0.25443
-0.1441
-0.07024
-0.01777
0

Pexp 1
Pa

0
-0.07613
-0.3959
-0.85652
-0.76516
-0.51391
-0.35783
-0.26647
-0.19795
-0.15227
-0.12943

Pexp 2

Pa
0
-0.06091
-0.32738
-0.69283
-0.62431
-0.40732
-0.29312
-0.22079
-0.1675
-0.13324
-0.1104

Pth Vs. Pexp - run 1

0
-0.9

-0.8

-0.7

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1 -0.1 0
-0.2

Pexp (Pa)

-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6
-0.7
-0.8
-0.9
-1

Pth (Pa)
Fig 4 Graph of Pth Vs. Pexp Run 1

Pth Vs. Pexp - run 2

0
-0.9

-0.8

-0.7

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

-0.1

-0.2

Pexp (Pa)

-0.3
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6
-0.7

Pth (Pa)

-0.8

Fig 5 Graph of Pth Vs. Pexp Run 2

Discussion of results:
This experiment was done according to the procedure which can be summarized by
changing the flow rate using the valve then measuring the time using the stop
watch. In our calculations we used weight = 12 Kg because the weighted arm ratio is
3:1.
From the curve of Fig. 1 which is the graph of
vs. Qth its obvious that
rises steadily with respect to the flow rate, best line fit shows that its

nearly a linear relationship according to our data. Also, Fig- 2 shows the relation
between (Qth vs. Qexp), Ive drawn the best line fit between them which shows some
errors, especially last point which is (0.000398, 0.000443) has the largest error.
Fig No.3 shows the relation between the change in meter coefficient against
discharge, this chart gave us a fugue picture of the relation but we can conclude that
increases the discharge get to decrease the meter coefficient, but there is a sudden
decrease at flow rate = 0.0002 so we can also conclude some errors here.
Finally, weve calculated the experimental and theoretical pressure for runs 1 and 2,
then Fig 4 and 5 were plotted which show the relation between Pth Vs. Pexp. Its
obvious that they very close.
To summarize, our results gave us the expected results is spite of these various
errors between the experimental and theoretical results.

Conclusion:
In this experiment the venturi-meter was used to measure the discharge of water and the
pressure difference in different parts in the venture meter tube, then calculating them
theoretically using Bernoullis equation and continuity equation.
By recording the time needed to 12 kg mass of water to go through the venture meter,
we could calculate the discharge each time we changed the flow by the hand wheel of
the water pump.
So after comparing our results of the discharge with the theoretical results the
relationship was linear with only small differences, which makes the venture meter an
accurate device to measure the flow of a fluid.
Then the pressure difference in each part of the venturi meter was calculated by using
the readings of the height of the water in each part, again the results compared with the
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theoretical ones were satisfying but with some small errors, particularly in the last part
of the tube.
We noticed that the pressure difference reaches its highest value on the throat of the
venturi meters tube due to the small cross sectional area, and it reaches its highest
value at the ends of the tube due to the large cross sectional area.
The experiment results can be improved by avoiding errors like not stopping the stop
watch at the exact same moment when 12 kg of water flows into the tank, or not
reading the values of the water height while looking perpendicularly, but our results are
acceptable and we can say that they are accurate somehow.

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