STUDY ON DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS USING THE FLOW OF WATER THROUGH TWO GEOMETRICALLY SIMILAR TANKS AT DIFFERENT TEMPERATURES

Aliyu A.  Baba¹, Zubairu Bello^{2 &} Yakub B. Ahmad³

Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology^1&2

Department of Chemical Engineering Technology²

Federal Polytechnic Mubi, Adamawa State-Nigeria^{1, 2&3}

ABSTRACT

Dimensional analysis is a way of simplifying a physical problem by appealing to dimensional similarity to reduce the number of relevant variables. A multi-parameter problem often has    difficulties in achieving complete similarity.Dimensional analysis gives a useful technique of decreasing difficult physical problems to the easiest, simplest and most economical method before obtaining a measurable solution. This study worked on getting the pi terms or groups involved in two geometrically similar tanks allowing the fluid (water) to be completely drained from them using two temperature values of 26.5℃ and 43.5℃ respectively for each tank using n relevant variables and m independent dimensions which was reduced to a relationship between   n – m non-dimensional parameters , …, . As the values of pi 1 ( terms of the big tank are decreasing, the values of the pi 4 terms are increasing in all cases.

Keywords: Dimensional analysis, Similar tanks, temperature, pi-terms, Measurable, Technique.