Flow in a duct of varying cross-section

Abstract
The abstract should start with the objectives of the experiment, followed by a brief summary
of the results and conclusions. The purpose of an abstract is to provide a short description of
the contents of your report, so that a potential reader can decide whether it is of interest. An
abstract should be a single paragraph of less than 150 words, with no pictures or equations.
It is best to write this section last.

Introduction
The connection between fluid velocity and pressure is to be examined in a channel of diverse
cross-sections. In this case the channel comprises of a pipe of steady diameter, then a brief
compression to a smaller diameter taken after by a long diffuser and at last a pipe of the same
estimate as the unique one. The Venturi tube is a device utilized for measuring the rate of
stream along a pipe. A fluid moving through it quickens in the course of the decreasing
contraction with an increment in the velocity in the throat. This is accompanied by a drop in
pressure, the size of which depends on the rate of stream. The stream rate may in this manner
be gathered from the distinction in pressure in as measured by piezometers set upstream at the
throat. The impact that the meter has on the weight alter is named as the Venturi impact.
The inflows, outflows and change in storage of mass in a system must be in balance.
According to Bernoulli’s theorem, at whatever point there is an increment in the speed of the
fluid, there is a concurrent decrease in the potential energy of the liquid. It is a rule of
preservation of energy in the case of ideal liquids. In the event that the liquid flows evenly
such that there is no alter in the gravitational potential energy of the liquid at that point
increment in speed of the liquid comes about in a diminish in pressure of the fluid.

Q i= A v i
(1)

√
π D 1 D2 g ( hi−h1 )
2 2
Q i= (2)
2 2 ( D i −D1 )
4 4

2
Vi p
z + + =constant (3)
2 g gh
Theory
Theory is not always necessary, and its inclusion will depend on the experiment you are
writing up. If the theory section is very short, it may be included within the Introduction.
There is no need for a full derivation of a result in a lab report; only the main equations used
in the data reduction or analysis are needed. As instructed in the lab class, you may need to
do additional background reading to complete this section.

In Word, use the MS Equation Editor add-on (or an equivalent tool). Do not hand-write
equations, or attempt to type equations in your text; this is never satisfactory. Equations are
numbered in the order in which they appear in the report, and then referred to by number. For
example, Eqn. (1) is one form of the well-known Bernoulli’s Equation
p  12 V 2  p 0 (1)
where p is the static pressure,  the density of air, V the true airspeed and p0 the total (or
stagnation) pressure.

The Equation Editor object is centred in the page, with the number to the left in brackets.
Note the use of tabs in the ‘equation’ paragraph style to get the formatting right. All symbols
used in equations should be defined in the text immediately afterwards. Use italics for
variables in the text, and either the ‘symbol’ font or the ‘Insert Symbol’ command to create
symbols. Use text descriptions to link equations in a sequence.

Experimental Arrangement
Again, this section can be included in the Introduction, if it is short.

Use this section to describe the lab equipment and the experimental procedure. Line drawings
of the experimental setup and diagrams of equipment should be computer generated sketches.
If photos are used to show equipment, they should be labelled properly.

It is not acceptable to use pictures and drawings downloaded from the internet. Write in
complete sentences, and do not use bullet points. It is not necessary to reproduce the lab
instructions in full – summarise them briefly.

Instructions on figure layout and captions will be given in the next section.

Results
The results section is where you present your processed data. The significance and/or
implications of the results should be discussed in the next section; however, it is good practice
to briefly comment on them as they are presented here. For example, any trends or patterns
which emerge from data, or results which do not meet expectations, should be pointed out in
this section.
Raw or unprocessed data (for example from your lab log book) should be left in an appendix,
along with at least one specimen data reduction calculation. If you have used an Excel
spreadsheet (or similar program) to analyse your data then this should also be included in
tabulated form in an appendix. An electronic copy of the code must be submitted along with
your report.

Experimental results to be discussed should be presented here, in either graphical or tabulated

form – but not both. Data tables used to produce graphs should be included in an appendix,
since you should not present the same data twice in the main body of a report. In general, use
graphs to present processed experimental data and tables to compare or summarise specific
aspects of the data; for example percentage differences from theoretical values.

All graphs, pictures and drawings should be numbered as ‘Figures’ in the order they appear in
the report. Tables are numbered separately. If you are an experienced Word user, you can
use the ‘Insert Cross-Reference’ command to automatically number figures, but this is not
essential. Each figure should have a caption centrally aligned under it, as shown below for
Figure 1, and have a brief explanation in the text. Leave any detailed discussion to the next
section.

smoothed redundant points on

curves for data title theoretical curve aspect ratio
border
Cp vs theta

1.5
1
0.5
0
-50 -0.5 0 50 100 150 200 250 laminar
Cp

-1 turbulent
-1.5 theoretical
label -2
rotated -2.5
-3
-3.5 legend away
theta from graph

filled
grey axis label away symbols horizontal
background from axis grid
units ?

Figure 1: An example of a poor Excel graph

Figure titles should be brief and to the point. It is not necessary to write ‘A graph of Cp vs
theta’ - readers can see that for themselves. Axes must be labelled to show quantity and units.
Experimental data points must be marked with open symbols of a reasonable size. Different
symbols and line-types are used to denote different conditions on the same graph - no colour
should be necessary. Legends must be clear and informative. Theoretical lines have no data-
points, and should be differentiated from experimental curves by using a different line-type.
Avoid background grids – they are only necessary if you expect the reader to read values
directly from the graph. Be careful with the ‘smoothed line’ (or spline) option in Excel – it
can introduce spurious ‘wiggles’ in your plots as it attempts to join the dots with a continuous
curve.
Figures do not need to fill an entire page – 2 figures on an A4 page is acceptable. Make sure
all figures are upright, so that the reader does not have to keep turning the report to read them.
It may occasionally be necessary to rotate a wide table to fit it on a page, but you should not
have to do this.

Think carefully about the layout of your figures. These are the primary communication tool
of an engineer, so they must be clear and unambiguous. If you have more than 5 or 6 curves
on a single graph it will be difficult to interpret – reconsider how you are going to present
your data.

aspect ratio
formatted dashed smooth
1
labels line for theory
Cp

0
0° 30° 60° 90° 120° 150° q 180° units on axis
no grid
-1 open symbols

fewer ticks straight lines

-2
laminar
for data
turbulent

-3
theoretical legend on graph
no colour

separate
Figure 1: Variation of pressure coefficient Cp with angle  numbered title

Figure 2: An example of a good Excel graph

When inserting tables and figures from other software packages, try to avoid inserting them as
objects. Embedded objects can be edited by the reader, leading to inadvertent changes in
formatting and potential plagiarism. For example, ‘cut-and-paste’ from Excel inserts data as a
Word table (Table 1), or you can use the ‘Paste Special’ command to insert as an Extended
Metafile (.emf) object which cannot be easily edited. In order to prevent random formatting
changes, format pictures and figures so that the layout is set to ‘In-line with text’. Do not
attempt to use frames.

For tables, units must be given in row/column headings. All numerical values should have the
correct number of significant figures. When listing numerical data, use a period ‘.’ for the
decimal point, never a comma ‘,’ – for example 201.5, not 201,5. This rather old-fashioned
European usage is not standard in engineering and causes much confusion. For the same
reason, never use a comma in a number to separate thousands – for example 201500 or 201
500, not 201,500 or 20,1500. If you really must do this, then at least put the comma in the
correct place.
 wing empty gross still air
designation passengers area weight weight range
(ft2) (lb) (lb) (miles)
ATR 42-300 Basic 46-50 586.6 22674 36817 562
ATR 42-300 Increased Weight 46-50 586.6 22674 37257 670
ATR 42-320 Basic 46-50 586.6 22685 36817 565
ATR 42-320 Increased Weight 46-50 586.6 22685 37257 677
ATR 42-400 46-50 586.6 24361 39462 949
ATR 42-500 46-50 586.6 24800 41005 966
ATR 42-600 586.6

Table 1: An example of a data table [1]

The data in Table 1 was obtained from Reference 1, and this is indicated in the table title.
You MUST properly reference all data used. You have been given extensive guidelines on
plagiarism, and a self-learning package is available on Moodle. Copying data, figures and/or
text with full and proper acknowledgement is a serious academic offense, and will at the best
result in you gaining zero marks for your report. You may use either the Harvard system
(author name and publication date) or the numerical method; the latter is more common in
engineering reports and journals, and is the one used here.

References are listed in a separate section in the order in which they are used, and referred to
in the text either as Reference 1 or Ref. 1, or by a superscript number in square brackets [1]. Be
particularly careful with internet sources; these are often not reliable and should be avoided.
You are not to use Wikipedia as a reference.

Discussion
The Discussion should deal with the experimental arrangements, the method of calculation
and the results obtained. It is not an extension of the introduction.

The core topic of this section is your own comments on the results presented above. All
figures and tables should be discussed, with respect to the observed physical phenomena,
related physical principles, and a comparison with other work/theory. This should be
followed by suggestions for further work and/or improvement of the experimental
arrangements.

An estimate of the accuracy of the results and an appropriate error analysis should be
included. Only the overall estimates are needed here – put the step-by-step deduction of error
propagation in an appendix if necessary.

Depending on the work being reported, you may if you wish merge Results and Discussion
into one section.

Conclusions
This section should summarise the whole report and reach some conclusions; it must not be
an extension of the discussion. It may be helpful to consider the conclusion as answering
questions raised in the introduction. Do not introduce any new information here. Do not use
bullet points.

References
All of your data sources must be referenced here in a numbered list – books, papers, lecture
notes, articles, and websites. As a general principle, each reference should have the authors
name(s), the reference title, the name of the source publication (journal, magazine, book,
technical report), the volume number if needed, the date published, and the relevant pages or
chapters. Each reference must have enough information for the reader to (a) assess its
significance, and to (b) find a copy of it.

A magazine article might referenced like this:

1. Aviation Week & Space Technology, 28th January 2008, pp73-81

Journal articles are referenced like this:

2. Chesnakas, S. and Simpson, R., “Detailed Investigation of the Three-Dimensional

Crossflow Separation About a 6:1 Prolate Spheroid”, AIAA Journal, Vol.35, No.6, pp.
990-999, 1997

Books are referenced like this

3. Timoshenko, S.P. and Goodier, J.N. “Theory of Elasticity”, 3rd edition, McGraw-Hill,
New York, 1982.

A student thesis is referenced like this:

4. DeMoss, J., “Drag Measurements on an Ellipsoidal Body”, MSc. Thesis, Dept. of

Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2007

If you really must reference a website, then you should include the name, the URL and the
date it was accessed.

Appendices
Appendices must include: raw data, data tables which are used to produce the graphs,
specimen calculations of processed data, and calculations of uncertainty analysis. Appendices,
in a formal report such as a final year project report or a journal paper, provide additional
information supplemental to the main report. In a Part 1 lab report, appendices are used to
shown an audit trail from raw data to final results presented in the report.