TITLE:
An Accurate and Computationally Efficient Explicit Friction Factor Model
AUTHORS:
Uchechukwu Herbert Offor, Sunday Boladale Alabi
KEYWORDS:
Colebrook Equation, Explicit Models, Computational Time, Friction Factor, Complexity
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.6 No.3,
May
24,
2016
ABSTRACT: The implicit Colebrook equation has been the standard for estimating pipe friction factor in a fully developed turbulent regime. Several alternative explicit models to the Colebrook equation have been proposed. To date, most of the accurate explicit models have been those with three logarithmic functions, but they require more computational time than the Colebrook equation. In this study, a new explicit non-linear regression model which has only two logarithmic functions is developed. The new model, when compared with the existing extremely accurate models, gives rise to the least average and maximum relative errors of 0.0025% and 0.0664%, respectively. Moreover, it requires far less computational time than the Colebrook equation. It is therefore concluded that the new explicit model provides a good trade-off between accuracy and relative computational efficiency for pipe friction factor estimation in the fully developed turbulent flow regime.