friction factor

Ventilation duct sizing tools - tradition and modernity

One of the most important problems in the hydraulic design of various building services systems is the calculation of the friction factor involved in Darcy-Weisbach equation. Ventilation duct sizing is a good case study, showing how classic, old-school design tools collide with modern instruments of the digital era. The friction factor is a function of Reynolds number, relative roughness and flow regime. Apart from the graphical representation in Moody’s chart, those variables are packed in the famous Colebrook-White equation, widely accepted by engineers and scientists.