Dimensional Analysis

* Textbook (Welty et al.) chapter 11

* Other references:
McCabe, Smith and Harriott, Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 7th ed.,
McGraw-Hill (2004) --- p16.
Neal R. Amundson, Mathematical Methods in Chemical Engineering; Matrices and Their
Applications, Printice-Hall (1966) --- section 3.4
* Dimensional consistency: Each term in an equation which describes a physical phenomenon
must have the same dimension. Thus if the whole equation is divided by one of the terms,
each remaining term in the equation must be dimensionless.
The requirement of dimensional consistency places a number of constraints on the form of the
functional relation between variables in a problem and forms the basis of the techniques of
dimensional analysis which enables the variables in a problem to be grouped into the form of
dimensionless groups.
* Buckinghams Theorem:
A relationship between N physical quantities involving K fundamental units may be expressed
as a relationship between at least (NK) dimensionless quantities.
f(Q1 , Q2 , Q3 , ......., QN ) = 0 g( 1 , 2 , 3 , ......., N K ) = 0
Dimensionless equations ensure solutions depend on a minimum number of parameters. This
has a great advantage if the functional relationship is to be investigated experimentally.
* An important problem is determining the dimensionless groups from a specified number of
physical quantities.

* example) flow through a pipe

It is found, as a result of experiments, that
the pressure difference (p) between the
two ends of a pipe in which a fluid is
flowing is a function of following variables;
pipe radius R, length
, the average velocity
V, the viscosity and the density of the
fluid.
p = f ( R, , V, , )

. (a)

Dimensional consistency requires that all terms in the function f should have the same
dimensions as the left hand side of the equation, p. And each term must be a combination of
all variables, that is
n n
R 1 2 V n3n4 n5

Recall the Hagen-Poiseuille equation for a laminar flow:

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P =

8 LQ

R4

8 L(R 2V )

R4

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Thus,
n

1
2
3
4
[p]
= [R] [] [V] [] []

n5

The square bracket denotes the dimension of the quantity in it. That is
1 2

[p] = M L T

M L1T 2 = (L) n1 (L)n 2 (LT 1 ) n 3 (M L3 ) n 4 (M L1T 1 ) n 5

M : 1 = n4 + n 5

L : 1 = n1 + n 2 + n 3 3n4 n5
T : 2 = n n

3
5

(1)
(2)
(3)

We have 3 equations and 5 unknowns. Thus all ni can be expressed in terms of two although
the choice of the two is arbitrary.
From (1) and (3), n4=1n5 and n3=2n5. Using these results along with (2), n1=n2n5.
[ p ] = [ R ] n 2 n 5 []n 2 [V]2 n 5 [ ]1 n 5 [ ]n 5

i.e.,

p
=
g
,
2
R
V

or

p n 2
2=

V R RV

n5

RV

This relationship in comparison with equation (a) indicates that the relationship between 6
dimensional quantities is equivalent to the relationship between 3 dimensionless groups.
If we had known a priori that the physical quantity we are interested in is the pressure drop per
unit length
(p / ) not the pressure drop p, then this knowledge imposes a condition that
n2=1. In that case the above relationship is further simplified as
RV
pR
=
g

2

V
Here the dimensionless group on the left hand side of the equation is defined as Fanning
friction factor f and the argument of the function g is defined as Reynolds number Re.
pR
DV
f
and Re
i.e., f = g(Re)
2

V
In defining the Reynolds number for the flow in a pipe, it is customary to use the diameter of
the pipe (D) instead of the radius (R).

* Although the choice of dimensionless groups is arbitrary, physical insight is crucial in

extracting information from the equations.

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* Another method using matrix manipulation

1) List the units of all physical quantities in the following matrix form (dimensional matrix of
the variables):

2) Diagonalize it using row-manipulation. (Columns may be switched along with the label.)
Add 3 times of the 1st row to the second row:
R
V

0
1
0

1
2
1

M
L
T

1
0
0

0
1
1

0
1
0

p
1
2
2

Add the third row to the 2nd row, and then change the sign of the 3rd row:

R
V

M
L

1
0

0
1

0
0

0
1

1
1

1
0

3) Formulate the dimensionless groups from the diagonalized matrix:

R
V

(M)
(L) R
(T) V

i.e.,

1
0
0

[] = [R]

[] = [RV]

2
[p] = V

[ ]
or

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0
1
0

0
0
1

0
1
0

1 =

2 =

RV

3 =

1
1
1

1
0
2

DV
Re =

p
V

p
=
g
,
2
V
R

RV

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Chapter 13 (Welty et al.)

* For the flow in a pipe, consider an additional length scale representing the surface roughness
of the pipe.

p = f ( R, , V, , , )

Then

And the dimensional analysis will results in

RV
= g ,
,
R R

If the additional information, that the pressure drop per unit length
(p / ) not the pressure
drop p is the physical quantity of importance, is incorporated,

RV
, or
= g
R
V 2
pR

f F = g Re,
R

Here fF is the Fanning friction factor.

The significance of this information is that the Fanning friction factor is a function of
Reynolds number and the dimensionless roughness factor (/R or /D) whether the flow is
laminar or not (i.e., turbulent).
Thus, if a relationship between fF and Re and /D is known whether theoretical or empirical,
the pressure drop (that may be the most important physical quantity in practice) can be
determined from the definition of the Fanning friction factor:
L
L 1

p = f F ( V 2 ) = 4 f F V 2
R
D 2

For turbulent flows, there exists a chart showing the value of fF as a function of Re and /D.

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