VMFL003

VMFL003
Pressure Drop in Turbulent Flow Through a Pipe

Overview

Reference F.M. White. Fluid Mechanics. 3rd Edition. McGraw-Hill Co., New York, NY. 1994.

Solver Ansys Fluent, Ansys CFX

Physics/Models Turbulent flow, standard k-ε Model

Input File

turb_pipe_flow.cas for Ansys Fluent

VMFL003B_VV003CFX.def for Ansys CFX

Project Files Link to Project Files Download Page

Test Case

Air flows through a horizontal pipe with smooth walls. The flow Reynolds number is 1.37 X 10⁴. Only half of the axisymmetrical domain is modeled.

Figure 3: Flow Domain

The figure is not to scale.

Material Properties	Geometry	Boundary Conditions
Density = 1.225 kg/m³ Viscosity = 1.7894 X 10^-5 kg/m-s	Length of the pipe = 2 m Radius of the pipe = 0.002 m	Inlet velocity = 50 m/s Outlet pressure = 0 Pa

Material Properties

Geometry

Boundary Conditions

Density = 1.225 kg/m³

Viscosity = 1.7894 X 10^-5 kg/m-s

Length of the pipe = 2 m

Radius of the pipe = 0.002 m

Inlet velocity = 50 m/s

Outlet pressure = 0 Pa

Analysis Assumptions and Modeling Notes

The flow is steady. Pressure drop can be calculated from analytical formula using friction factor f which can be determined for the given Reynolds number from Moody chart. The calculated pressure drop is compared with the simulation results (pressure difference between inlet and outlet).

Results Comparison for Ansys Fluent

Table 5: Comparison of Pressure Drop in the Pipe

	Target	Ansys Fluent	Ratio
Pressure Drop, Pa	21744	21480	0.988

Results Comparison for Ansys CFX

Table 6: Comparison of Pressure Drop in the Pipe

	Target	Ansys CFX	Ratio
Pressure Drop, Pa	21744	21740	1.000