The Economic Pipe Diameter for Non-Newtonian Fluids
Abstract
Much work has been done in the past for calculating the economic pipe diameter for Newtonian fluids, but there has been very little done to date for the case of non-Newtonian fluids; i.e., a fluid whose viscosity is not constant with increasing shear rate. Since so many fluids that occur industrially do not behave as a Newtonian fluid, there is a great need for a way to determine the optimum economic pipe diameter for these nonideal fluids. This paper presents a method of finding the economic pipe diameter for Bingham plastics and pseudoplastics knowing all the flow parameters except D. Figures V and VI on pages 17 and 20 are dimensionless plots which show the economic Reynold's number as a function of two variables which are independent of D. ψ incorporates all the economic variables and was calculated in this report to be equal to 0.11507 ?ft?^((p-1)) s^3/?lb?_m , but, if desired, a new ψ can be calculated from equation (13) and still be used with the charts.
A preliminary part of the work involve deriving a simple empirical equation for the friction factor of Bingham plastics. The equation that was derived is presented on page 13, and the comparison with a friction factor chart show in figure III on page 6.
Description
Program year: 1980-1981Digitized from print original stored in HDR
Subject
non-Newtonian fluidseconomic pipe diameter
viscosity
shear rate
Bingham plastics
pseudoplastics
Citation
Melson, Jeffrey D. (1981). The Economic Pipe Diameter for Non-Newtonian Fluids. University Undergraduate Fellows. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /CAPSTONE -MelsonJ _1981.