Below is pipe pressure drop calculator in Imperial units. For pipe pressure drop calculator in Metric units Click Here.
PIPE PRESSURE DROP CALCULATION INSTRUCTION
The pipe pressure drop calculator at the left side was developed by OilGas engineers. It can be used to calculate any liquid or gas flow pressure drop in pipes with varies type of materials. This calculator employ the best pressure drop calculation method – Darcy-Weishach equation. The friction factor is calculated with Colebrook equation through an iterative process so that the result is a true Colebrook friction factor instead of an approximation. The Colebrook friction factor, sometimes called Moody friction factor, is most popularly used in single phase flow pressure drop calculation. It is not accurate for using in multiple phase flow calculation though.
To calculate the pressure drop in a pipe with the calculator, simply fill in the pipe information and fluid information in the top section. Then you can find the calculation results in the bottom section almost at the same time. For details click below button to see the video on how to calculate the pipe pressure step by step.
HOW TO OBTAIN REQUIRED INPUT DATA
FLUID PROPERTY DATA
You can find water density and viscosity at various temperature by clicking below button.
For other fluid’s properties, you can find them in various chemical engineer hand books. You can also get them by clicking below buttons.
PIPE INSIDE DIAMETER
You can download a pipe diameter chart by clicking on the button below. If you don’t know the pipe schedule, you can use schedule 40 or STD pipe inside diameter in the calculation as an approximate.
PIPE EQUIVALENT LENGTH CALCULATION
If there is valves, fittings and so on in the piping system instead of a straight pipe, you can calculate the total pipe equivalent length by clicking on the button below. Then come back to this page to calculate the pressure of the piping system.
PIPE ROUGHNESS
Below are the absolute roughness of some popular pipe material. The unit is in feet.
- Riveted Steel: 0.003 to 0.03
- Concrete: 0.001 to 0.01
- Wood Stave: 0.0006 to 0.003
- Cast Iron: 0.00085
- Galvanized Iron: 0.0005
- Asphalted Cast Iron: 0.0004
- Commercial Steel: 0.00015
- Drawn Tubing: 0.000005
- Plastic Pipe: 0.000005
Since some pipe material has a wide roughness range, you need to select a proper roughness value base on your actual situation. For example concrete surface has different roughness when construct using different method. Also rust and fouling in a pipe can significantly increase pipe surface roughness. In this situation you may want to use the upper value in above table or use a bigger value than what is shown in above table.
WHERE TO FIND PIPE MATERIAL
To find pipe materials for a small project in USA and Canada. You can have a look at Home Depot and other construction material website. If you are looking for a big quantity of pipe material with a good price, Alibaba website may be a good place to look at. Below are the links to Homedepot and Alibaba website for your convenience.
Home Depot
Alibaba
DISCLAIMER
Pipe pressure drop calculation is a complicated engineering calculation. While this pipe pressure drop calculator is developed by an experienced engineer, the engineer and the website will not guarantee the accuracy of the calculation results. The engineer and the website will not take any responsibility for any loss or damage as a result of using this online calculator. If you are not sure how to perform an accurate pipe pressure drop calculation for your specific application, please contact us by clicking the contact button below. Our experienced engineer will help you obtain an accurate calculation result specifically for your project.