A new friction factor relationship for fully developed pipe flow

Abstract

The friction factor relationship for high-Reynolds-number fully developed turbulent pipe flow is investigated using two sets of data from the Princeton Superpipe in the range $31 \,{\times}\, 10^3 \,{\le}\,\hbox{\it Re}_D \,{\le}\, 35 \,{\times}\, 10^6$. The constants of Prandtl's ‘universal’ friction factor relationship are shown to be accurate over only a limited Reynolds-number range and unsuitable for extrapolation to high Reynolds numbers. New constants, based on a logarithmic overlap in the mean velocity, are found to represent the high-Reynolds-number data to within 0.5%, and yield a value for the von Kármán constant that is consistent with the mean velocity profiles themselves. The use of a generalized logarithmic law in the mean velocity is also examined. A general friction factor relationship is proposed that predicts all the data to within 1.4% and agrees with the Blasius relationship for low Reynolds numbers to within 2.0%.