The friction factor for flow of a Newtonian fluid in circular pipes is defined as:1
where f is the Moody friction factor,2
D the pipe diameter, L the pipe length, the pressure drop, the fluid density and the fluid velocity. The friction factor in Eq. 1 is a function of the Reynolds number alone for smooth pipes and under laminar flow conditions (Re < 2,100), this relationship can be expressed as:
where Re is the Reynolds number.
For turbulent fluid flow in smooth pipes, the Nikuradse-Prandtl-von Kármán (NPK) equation3–5 has been widely accepted as the standard approach for describing friction factor:
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