THE HISTORY OF MODERN

PIPELINE EQUATION
GROUP 2
 FRICTION LOSSES

VISCOSITY
EFFECT

FRICTION
LOSSES
ROUGHNESS
ROUGHNESS
OF
OF PIPE
PIPE
WALL
 FRICTION FACTOR

WALL
WALL
SHEAR
SHEAR
STRESS
STRESS

FRICTION
FACTOR
KINETIC
KINETIC
ENERGY
ENERGY PER
PER
UNIT
UNIT
VOLUME
VOLUME
 FANNING, DARCY-
WEISBACH,MOODY
Fanning eq. Darcy-Weisbach
Moody
f = 4f’
THE REYNOLDS NUMBER, NRE

• Ratio of fluid momentum forces

DEFINITION to viscous shear force

• Distinguish laminar and

PURPOSE turbulent flow
BASIC EQ AND NATURAL GAS FLOW
RELATIVE ROUGHNESS

absolute
roughness/
e/D
internal
diameter
 Hagen Poiseuille
Moody
f = f(NRE, e/D)
f = 64/NRE
! LAMINAR SINGLE PHASE
FLOW
 ! TURBULENT
Smooth Wall Pipe

Rough Wall Pipe

 Panhandle’s Equation
Weymouth Equation

Gas Flow Equation

Oliphant Equation Clinedinst Equation

  Panha
ndle’s
Equati
 Panhand on  Panhand
le A le B

 Develop  Develop
in 1940s in 1956
• The friction factor is
a function of
Reynold’s number.
• Design for large

diameter and long

pipelines.
EQUATION OF
PANHANDLE A

f varies with
NRE
RE

Pipeline Flow
equation
 EQUATION OF
PANHANDLE B

f varies with
NRE
RE

Pipeline Flow
equation
 OLIPHANT
EQUATION

1) Designed for low

pressure gathering
system

2) Extensively use for

vacuum and low
pressure (25-35 psig)
 0.
5
 Calculate the flow rate
and pressure losses in
horizontal pipeline
WEYMOUTH
EQUATION
w/o modifications, its
being used for pipelines
operating in 35-100
psig
 Original eq.

f varies with
diameter

Modified eq.
 ASSUMPTIONS
 No mechanical work
 steady flow
 isothermal flow
 constant compressibility factor
 horizontal flow
 no kinetic energy changes.
 SERIES VS PARALLEL
 When discussing this topic, we will only
consider Weymouth equation:
 SERIES
 Consider an L-mile long, DA-in. internal
diameter operating with total pressure drop
of p1-p2.
 The pipeline is altered by replacing the first LB
miles with a DB-in. internal diameter line) and
value of pressure drop, p1-p2 is constant.
 Using Weymouth equation, and since p1-p2 is
constant, the equation can be written as:
 where K is a constant. The equivalent length
of a DA-in. line, L’A that would have the same
pressure drop as LB miles of DB – in. line is:
 Therefore, the series line shown have a total
equivalent length of:

 Percent of change in flow rate :

 The equivalent lengths and diameters can be
expressed as:

 If Weymouth equation with friction factor f is used,

the equation will become:
 If there are more than 2 pipes in series, the
equation will become:

 In term of friction factor, f :

 PARALLEL
 Consider L-mile, DA-in. internal diameter. Suppose
the full length is paralleled with new DB-in. internal
diameter.
 Old flow rate using only DA-in. line = qA . New
flow rate with both lines is qt = qA + qb. The
length, L is constant. Using Weymouth equation:
 The ratio of new to old flow rates is:

 Pressure increase in capacity is:

 If the length of the two parallel lines is not equal,
this equation shall be used:

 The ratio of the flow rates becomes:

 Those equations may be extended to more than 2
lines in parallel. It will become:

 In terms of friction factor,f:

THANK YOU