ACCURATE, EXPLICIT PIPE SIZING FORMULA FOR TURBULENT FLOWS

Abstract

This paper develops an explicit formula for computing the diameter of pipes, which is applicable to all turbulent flows. The formula not only avoids iteration but still estimates pipe diameters over the entire range of turbulent flows with an error of less than 4% in the worst cases. This is superior to (without requiring a higher level of difficulty in use) the only two previously devel- oped relationships that are generally applicable to turbulent flows and  do not require iteration. Their errors were up to 24% for Ranga Raju’s method and up to 23% for Prabhata and Akalank’s method. All the errors are relative to the ideal but iterative Colebrook-White formula.