Hydraulic Losses in Systems of Conduits with Flow from Laminar to Fully Turbulent: A New Symbolic Regression Formulation

Separate flow friction formulations for laminar and turbulent regimes of flow through pipes are in common use in engineering practice. However, variation of different parameters in a system of conduits during conveying of fluids can cause changes in flow pattern from laminar to fully turbulent and vice versa. Because of that, it is useful to unify formulations for laminar and turbulent hydraulic regimes in one single coherent equation. In addition to a physical interpretation of hydraulic friction, this communication gives a short overview of already available Darcy’s flow friction formulations for both laminar and turbulent flow and additionally includes two simple completely new approximations based on symbolic regression.