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Fluid Mechanics Applications: Irrigation Systems

This document discusses several fluid mechanics applications: irrigation systems, water treatment plants, water towers, and mechanics of materials. For irrigation systems, it provides equations for calculating pressure loss and remaining pressure in the system. It also discusses factors like flow rate and sprinkler head pressure requirements. For water treatment plants, it notes they use safety factors due to the complexity of calculations for flow rate, pump efficiency, head loss, and other equations. Water towers are described as using Bernoulli's equation or a total head loss equation depending on the system complexity. Mechanics of materials is reflected as important for ensuring materials don't fail under forces like wind and water pressure.

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700 views5 pages

Fluid Mechanics Applications: Irrigation Systems

This document discusses several fluid mechanics applications: irrigation systems, water treatment plants, water towers, and mechanics of materials. For irrigation systems, it provides equations for calculating pressure loss and remaining pressure in the system. It also discusses factors like flow rate and sprinkler head pressure requirements. For water treatment plants, it notes they use safety factors due to the complexity of calculations for flow rate, pump efficiency, head loss, and other equations. Water towers are described as using Bernoulli's equation or a total head loss equation depending on the system complexity. Mechanics of materials is reflected as important for ensuring materials don't fail under forces like wind and water pressure.

Uploaded by

api-302662137
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Fluid Mechanics Applications

Irrigation systems
I picked this application because I have had experience
installing and maintaining proper irrigation system with jobs
before. When designing Irrigation systems static pressure,
pressure losses, gauges and fiction are all topics you need to have
an understanding of. One rule for this application is when water
runs through the system, there is only allowed a 10% loss of
pressure (from main) in a valve, so that 90% of the pressure
remains in the main line.
Pr = Pm (Po + Pl)
Where
Pm - Static water pressure of
the main water supply
Po - Pressure required for
operation for the last
sprinklers head
Pl - Pressure loss do to friction
from the systems main line to
end of worst case pipe
(longest length from main)
Pr Pressure remaining (at
least 90% of the systems max
pressure)
Static water pressure of the main water supply can be
measures with a gauge, or if you know the resultant force and the
cross-sectional area you can calculate the static pressure
Pm = Fr/Ac
Pressure loss do to friction from the systems main line to
end of worst case pipe is usually the longest pipe from the
main. Calculating for friction is done by the roughness of material
used.
Pl = f (L/D) ((V2)/2g)
Pressure required for operation for the last sprinklers head.
This pressure meant is on the worst case pipe for the farthest
head from the main. This can be found though the specs of the
head. It depends the heads angle rotation (60, 90, or 180
degrees, etc.), radius, and the flow rate.

Also the flow rate can be used to find the velocity of the
fluid. You would put the value flow rate over the cross-sectional
area to determine it
V=Q/Ac

Water treatment plant


The complexity and size of this process has led engineers to
use factor of safety (FOS = Strength of Component / Load on
Component), to ensure plant works properly. This means that
equipment used is typically larger and more expensive than it has
to be. The reason this happens is because calculating every fluid
related problem would be too strenuous. You deal with flow rate,
pumps efficiency, Bernoullis head, total head loss, and many
other equations (some shown below).
Flow Rate
Q=

V
t

Pumps Efficiency equation

Bernoullis head equation

Total Head Loss equation

John Payne
[email protected]
BSEN 3310

Water Tower
I have always been interested how they work to supply
water. When looking at this problem at the beginning of the
semester I felt like it was a really complicated topic, but now after
BSEN 3310 I realized its actually pretty simple. For a very simple
tank like the figure below the all that is used is the Bernoulli
equation. But for a more complex tank and piping system (varying
pipe fittings) the total head loss equation should be used because
of the minor loss coefficient. Also flow rate should be calculated
where you know how long till the tank water runs out.
Flow Rate
Q=

V
t

Bernoullis equation

Total head loss equation

Figure

John Payne
[email protected]
BSEN 3310

Mechanics of Materials Application and Reflection


When designing all of the previous topics I tend to thing of
Mechanics of Materials. By far that has been my favorite class at
auburn. I loved learning about when materials will untimely
failure, how they would fail, and how to prevent it by factor of
safety. That class really helped me understand structural physics
and thats something that I hope to work with some later in the
future. And how this could apply to the applications is just simply
by making sure the forces applied by like wind and water dont
cause the material use to break by applying safety factors.
Stress equation

Factory of Safety equation

John Payne
[email protected]

John Payne
[email protected]
BSEN 3310

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