A sixteen decimal places' accurate Darcy friction factor database using non-linear Colebrook's equation with a million nodes: A way forward to the soft computing techniques

Muhammad Mujtaba Shaikh; Shafiq-Ur-Rehman Massan; Asim Imdad Wagan

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104733

A sixteen decimal places' accurate Darcy friction factor database using non-linear Colebrook's equation with a million nodes: A way forward to the soft computing techniques

Data Brief. 2019 Oct 28:27:104733. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104733. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Authors

Muhammad Mujtaba Shaikh^{1

2}, Shafiq-Ur-Rehman Massan^{3

4}, Asim Imdad Wagan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Sciences and Related Studies, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Sindh, Pakistan.
² Supply Chain and Operations Management Research Group, Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, Pakistan.
³ Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Sindh, Pakistan.
⁴ Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan.

Abstract

The Colebrook's equation is considered as an empirical model to accurately compute the Darcy friction factor in pipes under fully-developed turbulent flow. Due to non-linearity and implicitness of the Colebrook's equation, one needs to use numerical methods to acquire reasonably good approximation to the true friction factor values. However, such idea is not preferred by practitioners as it demands use of computers - also more computational time and effort. To overcome this, explicit equations that can describe Darcy friction factor directly in terms of the Reynolds number and relative roughness are essential. Using Fixed point iteration method in the MATLAB software, we have developed a 16 decimal places' accurate friction factor database for the Darcy friction factor for a 1000 by 1000 mesh of Reynolds number and relative roughness values. The accurate dataset described in this work will serve to be basis for the construction of new and more reliable explicit equations using regression modeling, artificial intelligence techniques and other soft computing methods.

Keywords: Accurate database; Colebrook's equation; Darcy friction; Nonlinear equation; Soft computing.