Pipe network analysis

In fluid dynamics, pipe network analysis is the analysis of the fluid flow through a hydraulics network, containing several or many interconnected branches. The aim is to determine the flow rates and pressure drops in the individual sections of the network. This is a common problem in hydraulic design. In fluid dynamics, pipe network analysis is the analysis of the fluid flow through a hydraulics network, containing several or many interconnected branches. The aim is to determine the flow rates and pressure drops in the individual sections of the network. This is a common problem in hydraulic design. To direct water to many users, municipal water supplies often route it through a water supply network. A major part of this network will consist of interconnected pipes. This network creates a special class of problems in hydraulic design, with solution methods typically referred to as pipe network analysis. Water utilities generally make use of specialized software to automatically solve these problems. However, many such problems can also be addressed with simpler methods, like a spreadsheet equipped with a solver, or a modern graphing calculator. Once the friction factors of the pipes are obtained (or calculated from pipe friction laws such as the Darcy-Weisbach equation), we can consider how to calculate the flow rates and head losses on the network. Generally the head losses (potential differences) at each node are neglected, and a solution is sought for the steady-state flows on the network, taking into account the pipe specifications (lengths and diameters), pipe friction properties and known flow rates or head losses.