Mesfer Alyami

Fluid and Hydraulic Mechanics-MET2050

Date: 03/24/2016
LAB#
Introduction:
The main objective of this lab is
1) To study the Torricellis Equation which describes the flow coming out of a
small hole in a fluid reservoir.
2) To observe the velocity of flow coming from different size of orifice holes at a
fixed height and find the differences.
Technical discussion:
From the Torricellis equation-

v =2 gh
Where
v= Velocity of the flow
h= Height of the fluid in the reservoir
To measure the measured velocity, the velocity is related to flowrate by an equation

Q=vA
Where
Q= Flow rate
A= Area of the cross section of the orifice
Then the flowrate is measured by

Q=

volume
time

Results:
First set of data:
Diameter=

0.25

inches

Area=

Head(inch
es)

Volume(
ml)

Time(s
ec)

Flowrate(
cfs)

11

242

2.7

248

3.35

252

3.8

259

4.4

242

5.1

250

7.6

0.0031652
43
0.0026143
42
0.0023419
22
0.0020787
52
0.0016757
17
0.0011616
68

0.000340
885 ft2
Meas
Velocity
ft/sec
9.285359
029
7.669269
034
6.870115
576
6.098095
012
4.915778
309
3.407795
424

Theo
Velocity
ft/sec
7.6833152
57
6.9498201
42
6.1291652
5
5.1800900
89
4.0124805
3
2.3166067
14

Second set of data:

Diameter=

0.3125

inches

Area=

Head(inch
es)

Volume(
ml)

Time(s
ec)

Flowrate(
cfs)

11

214

2.3

182

1.85

202

1.9

194

2.2

221

3.25

243

5.3

0.0032858
03
0.0034742
03
0.0037545
1
0.0031141
14
0.0024014
0.0016191
46

0.000532
633 ft2
Meas
Velocity
ft/sec
6.168975
002
6.522689
911
7.048956
679
5.846636
886
4.508540
609
3.039887
258

Theo
Velocity
ft/sec
7.6833152
57
6.9498201
42
6.1291652
5
5.1800900
89
4.0124805
3
2.3166067
14

Graphical analysis:

Measured and Theoritical Velocity Vs Head

10
9
8
7

Theo Velocity(D=5/16'')

6
Velocity(ft/sec)

Meas Velocity(D=5/16'')

Theo Velocity(D=1/4'')

Meas Velocity(D=1/4'')

3
2
1
0
0

10

12

Head(inches)

From the graph it is seen that, the theoretical velocity for both
diameter and 5/16, the theoretical velocity remains the same. So the velocity
doesnt depend on the diameter of the orifice according to Torricellis equation. But
it is found that the measured velocity varies from the theoretical velocity by some
means. There are various parameters like friction of the fluid which are not included
in the theoretical data. Thats why, the measured velocity is affected by the size of
the holes of the orifices. From the data it is seen that for diameter 5/16, the
measured value shows a close similarity with the theoretical one and for the
diameter , the measured value maintains approximately an equal percentage of
error with the theoretical ones.

Conclusion:

The objectives of this lab are met and with the formulas in the
excel sheet, calculations are done. Moreover, taking the volume of the flow
and time required as input, the volume flow rate of the flow can be found
and using the volume flow rate and the orifice diameter, the measured
velocity is calculated. Along with this, the fluid height in the reservoir is
applied on Torricellis equation to calculate the theoretical velocity. Lastly, a
graph is drawn to compare between the theoretical and measured velocity.