A Laboratory Study on the Design and Performance Evaluation of Pitot-Tube

Abstract

Due to the increasing demand for water resources worldwide, this commodity and its spatial and temporal properties are of the interest of decision makers and scientists. In this respect, the accuracy in detecting the physical characteristics of the water movement such as velocity and its associated phenomena should be preauthorized in hydraulic studies. Although velocity, as the deriving factor of the water flow, can be determined with the help of theoretical or practical approaches, researchers continuously pushes the limits of science by improving the existing methods to the best. The pitot tube, which is not widely used in open channel hydraulic practices, is one of these methods. In this study, we have addressed a case from design to conducting a set of laboratory experiments. A 3D-printed pitot-tube is designed and used in a set of experiments carried out in an open channel, with different flow rates (three experiments). As a result, the relative error rates were interpreted by comparing the velocity rates obtained with the help of the water level difference in the differential manometer (Vm) and the velocity rates obtained from the flow continuity equation in the open channel (Vo). Results indicated a 50% bias in the experiments, while scatter analysis showed that the associated deviations matches a linear equation.