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Author: Subject: Physics brain teaser: storage tank filling time
blogfast25
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 06:02
Physics brain teaser: storage tank filling time


A water storage tank is filled by a pump:

Water tank filler time.png - 6kB

A pump delivers 3 bar of pressure through a 10 cm ID smooth pipe, near the bottom of the tank.

The air venting valve maintains a pressure above the water of 1.3 bar.

The storage tank has a radius of 3 m and height of 5 m.

How long does it take to fill the storage tank?

Hint: ignore viscous losses, drag and inertial effects.




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Fulmen
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 06:04


Not enough information, you need pump capacity as well.



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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 06:54


85 seconds? :)

I'm guessing I cocked up somewhere, that sounds insanely small! :o
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 07:35


Quote: Originally posted by Fulmen  
Not enough information, you need pump capacity as well.


No, it is sufficient to know the pump delivers 3 bar consistently.

It's teaser, remember? :) Not a 'trick question' though...

Quote: Originally posted by Maker  
85 seconds? :)

I'm guessing I cocked up somewhere, that sounds insanely small! :o


Do provide a modicum of reasoning, please. :)

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 08:57


Sorry, I was typing on my phone and didn't fancy typing all this out;

I used the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, rearranged to equal flow rate;

(Pressure*Pi*diameter^4)/(128*dynamic viscosity*length)=flow rate

I took the pressure to be 170,000 Pa (3-1.3 Bar, it seemed logical but now I have my doubts as to if this is correct :( ), the viscosity to be 1PaS * (Water at 20°C) the length to be 1 meter.

This gave me the seemingly ridiculously high flow rate of 0.417 cubic meters per second. :o

Then dividing the volume, 35.3 cubic meters, by the flow rate I got 85 seconds.

*I just went back to check it was the value for 20°C and spotted the unit in the table was PaS x10^-3, I'm three orders of magnitude off!

Using the correct viscosity, I get a flow rate of 417 cubic meters per second! :o

Clearly I've done something drastically wrong here, you're probably not even supposed to use that equation. My education in fluid dynamics consists of about 15 minutes of Googleing after I read the question. Hopefully someone can provide a better answer and explanation. :)

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by Maker]

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by Maker]
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blogfast25
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 09:06


Quote: Originally posted by Maker  
My education in fluid dynamics consists of about 15 minutes of Googleing after I read the question. Hopefully someone can provide a better answer and explanation. :)



That explains it then. Still, kudos for trying! :):)

I'll see if a get a few more takers.

As this derivation will take forever to render in LaTex, I'd better start now though (off site)...




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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 09:19


2.3h?



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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 10:38


I think I need the length of the pipe between the pump and the point where it enters the tank.



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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 11:07


Perhaps the venture effect can be used to determine the velocity in the pipe from the differences in pressure. Using that velocity and the diameter to of the pipe gives the flow rate which would give the fill time.

It may be complicated by the change pressure at the output of the pipe as the tank fills. Possibly the surface pressure om the water cam be used but that does not seem valid. Sorry I don,t want to do the actual calculation that's the easy part.
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 11:44


Quote: Originally posted by wg48  
[...]It may be complicated by the change pressure at the output of the pipe as the tank fills.[...]
This will lead to a differential equation. As the height of the water increases, the pressure at the pipe's entry point at the bottom of the tank increases from 1.3 to 1.8 bar. So, you can write the pressure difference between pump outlet and tank inlet as a simple function of h, where h is the height of water, already in the tank.

The time derivative of h can be written as a constant times the inlet flow, the constant depending on the radius of the tank.




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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 11:54


The way i see it, the water is leaving a 10cm pipe at 3 bar pressure and entering a 3m pipe at 1.3 bar pressure, just that the pipe going in is at the side and not in via the bottom.

Not found a forumula to convert that to flow rate yet.
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 12:15


Quote: Originally posted by aga  
The way i see it, the water is leaving a 10cm pipe at 3 bar pressure and entering a 3m pipe at 1.3 bar pressure, just that the pipe going in is at the side and not in via the bottom.

Not found a forumula to convert that to flow rate yet.


You can use the venture formular as I suggested above but that would imply the rate is unaffected by the height of the water but that does not seem valid.
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 12:24


With the venturi forumla i found, i get the velocity of the water in the tank being the square root of v2<sup>2</sup> - 3.4

still not found the formula to convert pipe diameter and pressure to flow rate or velocity.

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 12:25


Quote: Originally posted by woelen  
Quote: Originally posted by wg48  
[...]It may be complicated by the change pressure at the output of the pipe as the tank fills.[...]
This will lead to a differential equation. As the height of the water increases, the pressure at the pipe's entry point at the bottom of the tank increases from 1.3 to 1.8 bar. So, you can write the pressure difference between pump outlet and tank inlet as a simple function of h, where h is the height of water, already in the tank.

The time derivative of h can be written as a constant times the inlet flow, the constant depending on the radius of the tank.


Yes I agree. But the weakness is the position of the inlet pipe is given as "near the bottom" it seems invalid to assume its at the bottom. The surface pressure could be used but I don't see how that can be valid either see my other post.
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 12:43


Quote: Originally posted by woelen  
I think I need the length of the pipe between the pump and the point where it enters the tank.


Not needed: all friction losses are ignored, as stated.

Quote: Originally posted by wg48  
But the weakness is the position of the inlet pipe is given as "near the bottom" it seems invalid to assume its at the bottom. The surface pressure could be used but I don't see how that can be valid either see my other post.


Consider the water to come through a pipe in the bottom of the tank, if you want. It makes no difference to the solution of the problem. in my derivation.

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 12:44


Quote: Originally posted by aga  
With the venturi forumla i found, i get the velocity of the water in the tank being the square root of v2<sup>2</sup> - 3.4

still not found the formula to convert pipe diameter and pressure to flow rate or velocity.

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]


You know know the ratio of v1 and v2 given by the ratios of the pipe to tank diameters.
Ok the maths is a bit more complicated than I originally thought

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by wg48]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 13:32


Ok so using the ratio of pressures and flow rates we can solve for the file time. I guess the water height effects how hard the pump works but the flow rate is fixed by the pressure ratios.

But I still have no justification for picking the water surface pressure and not the pressure at the height of the inlet pipe.

We know the rate of energy input given by the rate of the water rising in the tank but I don't see how that helps. Can it be used in a fuller continuity equation?

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by wg48]

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by wg48]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 13:38


From Bernoulli (googled) it seems that the velocity V = square root of (2P/d) where P is differential pressure and d is density (=1) so the velocity of the flow is sqrt(2P).

This means that the velocity of the water is sqrt(2*1.7) somethings, associated with pounds, inches and square bits.

Flow rate Q = VA, so sqrt(3.4)*pi*1.5*1.5 = 13.03 is the flow rate, in some unknown units involving metres, inches, pounds etc.

The tank's volume is pi*(3/2)<sup>2</sup>*5 = 35.35m<sup>3</sup>

So the tank fills in about 2.71 hours, based on some unknown poundy inchy cuby metre-like unit times hour<sup>-1<sup>


[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 14:33


Quote: Originally posted by aga  
From Bernoulli (googled) it seems that the velocity V = square root of (2P/d) where P is differential pressure and d is density (=1) so the velocity of the flow is sqrt(2P).

This means that the velocity of the water is sqrt(2*1.7) somethings, associated with pounds, inches and square bits.

Flow rate Q = VA, so sqrt(3.4)*pi*1.5*1.5 = 13.03 is the flow rate, in some unknown units involving metres, inches, pounds etc.

The tank's volume is pi*(3/2)<sup>2</sup>*5 = 35.35m<sup>3</sup>

So the tank fills in about 2.71 hours, based on some unknown poundy inchy cuby metre-like unit times hour<sup>-1<sup>


[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]


I checked the consistence of the units, that got my grey matter working LOL. So with the velocity in m/s density in kg/m**3 the pressure is in Newtons/m**2 . Yes the conversions are yucky especially with bars thrown in.

Ref: N/m**2 - kg/m**3. x (m/s)**2
Simplifying the right side results in kg/(m x s**2)
Multiplying both sides by m**2 results in N equals kg.m/s**2
Which is correct QED


[Edited on 5-3-2016 by wg48]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 14:43


Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
No, it is sufficient to know the pump delivers 3 bar consistently.

You're right, I've just never dealt with idealized problems before. I've calculated many similar problems, but always with some pump specifications (and with pipe losses to calculate). Bernoulli's should give the answer to the flow rate out of the pipe.




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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 14:44


Quote: Originally posted by wg48  
I checked the consistence of the units, that got my grey matter working LOL. So with the velocity in m/s density in kg/m**3 the pressure is in Newtons/m**2 . Yes the conversions are yucky especially with bars thrown in.

Not sure what you mean wg48.

Glad your brain cells were mobilised, so what are the units ?

I certainly don't know.

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 15:09


Quote: Originally posted by aga  
Quote: Originally posted by wg48  
I checked the consistence of the units, that got my grey matter working LOL. So with the velocity in m/s density in kg/m**3 the pressure is in Newtons/m**2 . Yes the conversions are yucky especially with bars thrown in.

Not sure what you mean wg48.

Glad your brain cells we mobilised, so what are the units ?

I certainly don't know.


See my addendum
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 15:11


what does ** mean ?
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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 15:21


Quote: Originally posted by aga  
what does ** mean ?


Raised to the power of ie x**2 is x squared, x**3 is x cubed

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[*] posted on 5-3-2016 at 15:31


x^3 would be more understandable.

Thanks for the explanation.

Edit:

So what are the units ?

[Edited on 5-3-2016 by aga]
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