Short Introduction to the Mechanical Energy Balance

Dr. Faith Morrison introduces the mechanical energy balance equation and goes through how to apply it to one simple equation.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• fluid mechanics
• Michigan Tech

[DrMorrisonMTU]

Alpha is the parameter that is related to the shape of the velocity profile. For turbulent flows, alpha is one. For laminar flows, alpha is one half.

[ESCUpLoader1]

this analysis is good only if you have flow from a tank to an open ended stream, in which case you can make Order of Magnitude analysis and ignore V1, but if you are pumping from a tank to another tank (which is the case 90% of the time in industry) then you'd ignore V1 and V2, and you'd have to consider the Energy loss due to Viscous forces (and if you assume in-compressible fluid then you can ignore the other term which takes into account compression and expansion of the fluid)

[DrMorrisonMTU]

This analysis can be used in a wide variety of problems. The example shows the MEB applied to one case. In other cases, different terms are zero and the problem turns out differently.

[mindsight1]

what is alpha?

[vornander9]

You have exactly the same calculator as I do :)

Thanks for the upload btw, it was very helpful.