A new numerical approach for the analysis of liquid flow in a series of pipelines: the development of an educative application

Abstract

Contained in the classic problems of pipeline flow, there are two standard situations in which the analyst seeks to find the flow(Q) or the diameter design (F). The results have traditionally been obtained through iterative processes that try to obtain the friction factor (D) by endeavoring to discover a variable that is not, in itself, the principal unknown problem. The purpose of this is to facilitate finding the solution by not having to calculate derivatives, which, consequently leads to a solution that is more real. In this article a proposal is presented for a new formulation for this problem, based on a numerical foundation that can directly find the variables of interest, mathematically and computationally adapting the Newton Raphson Method, which quickly finds the desired solution. An educative application using Java has been developed that uses Netbeans IDE. The results obtained question the form in which, traditionally, we are taught to resolve liquid flow in pipeline problems using classic fluid mechanics texts.