Directional Grooves on the Interior of Pipes

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around the feasibility of designing pipes with swirled grooves on the interior to enhance water flow and minimize turbulence. Participants emphasize the importance of understanding energy losses due to friction and turbulence in traditional pipes, suggesting that guided flow could preserve kinetic energy. The group plans to consult mechanical engineering and physics professors for insights on fluid dynamics and energy loss calculations. Additionally, references to complex internal passages in fuel pipes highlight potential parallels and technical advice sources, such as G.E. Aircraft Engine Department. The conversation underscores the need for a thorough investigation into the effectiveness of this innovative pipe design.
Jingie
Hey everyone! My name is Jing and I am participating in a one month summer program called SHAD where 800 high school students across Canada come together to try and solve some of the world's most multi-dimensional problems. One of the aspects of this program is the Entrepreneurial Project, where groups of SHAD participants innovate a solution to these kind of problems.

This year's theme is every consumption, and one of our group's ideas is to create a new type of pipes which has swirled grooves on the interior to better permit water flow and limit turbulence. A picture of the interior of a rifle is shown below to help illustrate what I am trying to convey:

url


My question is whether or not this is a feasible idea and if it can be effective in reducing energy losses in the water across long distances.

Thanks for any help in advance!
 

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What is your thinking behind why the grooves will reduce the turbulence and energy loss?
 
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Drakkith said:
What is your thinking behind why the grooves will reduce the turbulence and energy loss?
Hey, thanks for replying to my thread.

Our thinking was that by giving water a guided path to flow along, there is a lower chance for flowing water to divert from a path parallel to the pipe and collide against the smooth interior surface of the pipe. Therefore with less collisions, more kinetic energy is preserved.
 
Jingie said:
Hey, thanks for replying to my thread.

Our thinking was that by giving water a guided path to flow along, there is a lower chance for flowing water to divert from a path parallel to the pipe and collide against the smooth interior surface of the pipe. Therefore with less collisions, more kinetic energy is preserved.
Ok, not bad - but have you looked into whether or not that is a significant source of energy loss for flow in pipes?
 
:welcome:

Not grooves, but this video http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2014...p-plane.cnn/video/playlists/future-of-travel/ at 2:20 discusses fuel pipes with complex internal passages that guide the flow. I suggest that your team should try to contact G.E. Aircraft Engine Department for technical advice on your project. When I saw the video, I visualized a bundle of soda straws to replace a pipe with the diameter of the bundle. I'm sure it's not that simple, but "internal passages" sounds like such a bundle.

Good luck on your project.
 
russ_watters said:
Ok, not bad - but have you looked into whether or not that is a significant source of energy loss for flow in pipes?
Heya, thanks for replying.

It's definitely very important for our group to include the scale of the energy losses that can be achieved through this method. We haven't personally looked into the energy losses due to friction/turbulence in pipes yet, but we are in the process of contacting mechanical engineering and physics professors at our host university for guidance on involving fluids and energy losses.
 
anorlunda said:
:welcome:

Not grooves, but this video http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2014...p-plane.cnn/video/playlists/future-of-travel/ at 2:20 discusses fuel pipes with complex internal passages that guide the flow. I suggest that your team should try to contact G.E. Aircraft Engine Department for technical advice on your project. When I saw the video, I visualized a bundle of soda straws to replace a pipe with the diameter of the bundle. I'm sure it's not that simple, but "internal passages" sounds like such a bundle.

Good luck on your project.
Thanks!
 
Jingie said:
Heya, thanks for replying.

It's definitely very important for our group to include the scale of the energy losses that can be achieved through this method. We haven't personally looked into the energy losses due to friction/turbulence in pipes yet, but we are in the process of contacting mechanical engineering and physics professors at our host university for guidance on involving fluids and energy losses.
This one should be pretty easy to find with google...
 
The Frictional force is given by Ff = μ" role="presentation" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); (251, 251, 255); position: relative;">μμ Fn
Thus you should verify that the force of friction is fairly substantially reduced.
 
  • #10
Don't forget the Reynolds Number. That's perhaps the key measure in this research.
 
  • #11
Sandman7 said:
The Frictional force is given by Ff = μ" role="presentation" style="display: inline; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-: 0px; border: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); (251, 251, 255); position: relative;">μμ Fn
Thus you should verify that the force of friction is fairly substantially reduced.

That equation is useless in fluids.
 

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