[Physics] Pressure drop due to friction

fluid dynamicsfluid-statics

I'm doing the following problem of White's Fluid Mechanics:

Water flows downward in a pipe at $45^0$, as shown in the figure. The
pressure drop $p_1 – p_2$ is partly due to gravity and partly due to
friction. The mercury manometer reads a 15 cm height difference.

enter image description here

I found the pressure drop between $p_1$ and $p_2$ by using the usual hydrostatic equation $p_1+\gamma _{water}*(1.06+y+0.15)-0.15*\gamma_{Hg}-y*\gamma_{water}=p_2$ and solved for $p_1-p_2$. My question is, which term in the equation corresponds to friction loss? And why?

Best Answer

None of these terms correspond to the friction loss. The equation you wrote down is, as you say, just the hydrostatic pressure equation, which knows nothing about friction. You find the part of the pressure drop that is due to friction loss by comparing the pressure drop you would see without friction (which would be the pressure drop between points 1 and 2, if there was no flow), with the actual pressure drop you just calculated. You should be able to take it from there. Let us know if you need more help.

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