the portion of surface which succeeds the first will be rubbing, not against stationary water, but against water partially moving in its own direction, and cannot therefore experience so much resistance from it.”
§ 69. The following table gives a general statement of Froude’s results. In all the experiments in this table, the boards had a fine cutwater and a fine stern end or run, so that the resistance was entirely due to the surface. The table gives the resistances per square foot in pounds, at the standard speed of 600 feet per minute, and the power of the speed to which the friction is proportional, so that the resistance at other speeds is easily calculated.
| Length of Surface, or Distance from Cutwater, in feet. | ||||||||||||
| 2 ft. | 8 ft. | 20 ft. | 50 ft. | |||||||||
| A | B | C | A | B | C | A | B | C | A | B | C | |
| Varnish | 2.00 | .41 | .390 | 1.85 | .325 | .264 | 1.85 | .278 | .240 | 1.83 | .250 | .226 |
| Paraffin | .. | .38 | .370 | 1.94 | .314 | .260 | 1.93 | .271 | .237 | .. | .. | .. |
| Tinfoil | 2.16 | .30 | .295 | 1.99 | .278 | .263 | 1.90 | .262 | .244 | 1.83 | .246 | .232 |
| Calico | 1.93 | .87 | .725 | 1.92 | .626 | .504 | 1.89 | .531 | .447 | 1.87 | .474 | .423 |
| Fine sand | 2.00 | .81 | .690 | 2.00 | .583 | .450 | 2.00 | .480 | .384 | 2.06 | .405 | .337 |
| Medium sand | 2.00 | .90 | .730 | 2.00 | .625 | .488 | 2.00 | .534 | .465 | 2.00 | .488 | .456 |
| Coarse sand | 2.00 | 1.10 | .880 | 2.00 | .714 | .520 | 2.00 | .588 | .490 | .. | .. | .. |
Columns A give the power of the speed to which the resistance is approximately proportional.
Columns B give the mean resistance per square foot of the whole surface of a board of the lengths stated in the table.
Columns C give the resistance in pounds of a square foot of surface at the distance sternward from the cutwater stated in the heading.
Although these experiments do not directly deal with surfaces of greater length than 50 ft., they indicate what would be the resistances of longer surfaces. For at 50 ft. the decrease of resistance for an increase of length is so small that it will make no very great difference in the estimate of the friction whether we suppose it to continue to diminish at the same rate or not to diminish at all. For a varnished surface the friction at 10 ft. per second diminishes from 0.41 to 0.32 ℔ per square foot when the length is increased from 2 to 8 ft., but it only diminishes from 0.278 to 0.250 ℔ per square foot for an increase from 20 ft. to 50 ft.
If the decrease of friction sternwards is due to the generation of a current accompanying the moving plane, there is not at first sight any reason why the decrease should not be greater than that shown by the experiments. The current accompanying the board might be assumed to gain in volume and velocity sternwards, till the velocity was nearly the same as that of the moving plane and the friction per square foot nearly zero. That this does not happen appears to be due to the mixing up of the current with the still water surrounding it. Part of the water in contact with the board at any point, and receiving energy of motion from it, passes afterwards to distant regions of still water, and portions of still water are fed in towards the board to take its place. In the forward part of the board more kinetic energy is given to the current than is diffused into surrounding space, and the current gains in velocity. At a greater distance back there is an approximate balance between the energy communicated to the water and that diffused. The velocity of the current accompanying the board becomes constant or nearly constant, and the friction per square foot is therefore nearly constant also.
§ 70. Friction of Rotating Disks.—A rotating disk is virtually a surface of unlimited extent and it is convenient for experiments on friction with different surfaces at different speeds. Experiments carried out by Professor W. C. Unwin (Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng. lxxx.) are useful both as illustrating the laws of fluid friction and as giving data for calculating the resistance of the disks of turbines and centrifugal pumps. Disks of 10, 15 and 20 in. diameter fixed on a vertical shaft were rotated by a belt driven by an engine. They were enclosed in a cistern of water between parallel top and bottom fixed surfaces. The cistern was suspended by three fine wires. The friction of the disk is equal to the tendency of the cistern to rotate, and this was measured by balancing the cistern by a fine silk cord passing over a pulley and carrying a scale pan in which weights could be placed.
If ω is an element of area on the disk moving with the velocity v, the friction on this element is fωvn, where f and n are constant for any given kind of surface. Let α be the angular velocity of rotation, R the radius of the disk. Consider a ring of the surface between r and r + dr. Its area is 2πrdr, its velocity αr and the friction of this ring is f 2πrdrαnr n. The moment of the friction about the axis of rotation is 2παnfr n+2 dr, and the total moment of friction for the two sides of the disk is
If N is the number of revolutions per sec.,
and the work expended in rotating the disk is
The experiments give directly the values of M for the disks corresponding to any speed N. From these the values of f and n can be deduced, f being the friction per square foot at unit velocity. For comparison with Froude’s results it is convenient to calculate the resistance at 10 ft. per second, which is F = f10n.
The disks were rotated in chambers 22 in. diameter and 3, 6 and 12 in. deep. In all cases the friction of the disks increased a little as the chamber was made larger. This is probably due to the stilling of the eddies against the surface of the chamber and the feeding back of the stilled water to the disk. Hence the friction depends not only on the surface of the disk but to some extent on the surface of the chamber in which it rotates. If the surface of the chamber is made rougher by covering with coarse sand there is also an increase of resistance.
For the smoother surfaces the friction varied as the 1.85th power of the velocity. For the rougher surfaces the power of the velocity to which the resistance was proportional varied from 1.9 to 2.1. This is in agreement with Froude’s results.
Experiments with a bright brass disk showed that the friction decreased with increase of temperature. The diminution between 41° and 130° F. amounted to 18%. In the general equation M = cNn for any given disk,
where ct is the value of c for a bright brass disk 0.85 ft. in diameter at a temperature t° F.
The disks used were either polished or made rougher by varnish or by varnish and sand. The following table gives a comparison of the results obtained with the disks and Froude’s results on planks 50 ft. long. The values given are the resistances per square foot at 10 ft. per sec.
| Froude’s Experiments. | Disk Experiments. | ||
| Tinfoil surface | 0.232 | Bright brass | 0.202 to 0.229 |
| Varnish | 0.226 | Varnish | 0.220 to 0.233 |
| Fine sand | 0.337 | Fine sand | 0.339 |
| Medium sand | 0.456 | Very coarse sand | 0.587 to 0.715 |
VIII. STEADY FLOW OF WATER IN PIPES OF UNIFORM SECTION.
§ 71. The ordinary theory of the flow of water in pipes, on which all practical formulae are based, assumes that the variation of velocity at different points of any cross section may be neglected. The water is considered as moving in plane layers, which are driven through the pipe against the frictional resistance, by the difference of pressure at or elevation of the ends of the pipe. If the motion is steady the velocity at each cross section remains the same from moment to moment, and if the cross sectional area is constant the velocity at all sections must be the same. Hence the motion is uniform. The most important resistance to the motion of the water is the surface friction of the pipe, and it is convenient to estimate this independently of some smaller resistances which will be accounted for presently.
 |
| Fig. 80. |
In any portion of a uniform pipe, excluding for the present the ends of the pipe, the water enters and leaves at the same velocity. For that portion therefore the work of the external forces and of the surface friction must be equal. Let fig. 80 represent a very short portion of the pipe, of length dl, between cross sections at z and z + dz ft. above any horizontal datum line xx, the pressures at the cross sections being p and p + dp ℔ per square foot. Further, let Q be the volume of flow or discharge of the pipe per second, Ω the area of a normal cross section, and χ the perimeter of the pipe. The Q cubic feet, which flow through the space considered per second, weigh GQ ℔, and fall through a height −dz ft. The work done by gravity is then
a positive quantity if dz is negative, and vice versa. The resultant pressure parallel to the axis of the pipe is p − (p + dp) = −dp ℔ per square foot of the cross section. The work of this pressure on the volume Q is
The only remaining force doing work on the system is the friction against the surface of the pipe. The area of that surface is χdl.
The work expended in overcoming the frictional resistance per second is (see § 66, eq. 3)
or, since Q = Ωv,
