DOI: 10.11648/j.ijepe.20261504.13 ISSN: 2326-960X

Explicit Expressions for Calculating the Turbulent Friction Coefficient: A Review

Nkontchou François, Tchawe Moukam, Tientcheu Maxwell, Djiako Thomas, Kenmeugne Bienvenu
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Research on friction in pipes remains complex. This complexity is due to the numerous parameters that must be considered when calculating the coefficient of friction f. Due to this complexity, many researchers have proposed multiple formulas for determining the friction coefficient. Today, there are a large number of explicit expressions for calculating the friction coefficient for each flow regime, whether for smooth or rough pipes. In this review, we set out to study the evolution of work on the friction coefficient and to present it. For this purpose, a large number of reviews have been used. Once this has been done, we identified more than 120 expressions, most of which were explicit. We have thus noted that many of these expressions are approximations of the implicit Colebrook-White equation. Similarly, a good number are derived either from direct developments using computer tools, or from mathematical methods that are sometimes very long. However, in general, we have found that all these expressions only take into account the three parameters present in the Colebrook-White formula. These parameters are: Reynolds number Re, the absolute roughness ɛ and the diameter D. We would like to point out that these parameters were deemed insufficient to minimise the difference between the calculated values and the values observed on site with regard to the friction coefficient.

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