Ivar KJELBERG
                                                                                                                                                    COMSOL Multiphysics(r) fan, retired, former "Senior Expert" at CSEM SA (CH)
                                                         
                            
                         
                                                
    
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                                                Posted:
                            
                                1 decade ago                            
                            
                                14 gen 2011, 15:14 GMT-5                            
                        
                        
                                                    Hi
if I remember right (CFD is not my main occupation) head losses in a pipe system comes from known pipe parameters: length, section ..., liquide properties: density, viscuosity ... environmental values: temperature, pressure ..., but also surface roughness of the piping, all for laminar flow, and with turbulences everything is even more fun ;)
Formulas relating these are Poiseille, for pressure drop of the flow, mass & momentum conservation in general ...
So if you can express all this in a reasonnable way , including enough BC, as you are suggesting, except for one unknown (i.e pipe surface roughness), then you can get Comsol to find by least square (via a global equation) the best fit for this unknown (sure I suppose there is only 1 unique solution)
It's not a precooked answer, but at least it's the methodology I would use ;)
PS: in engineering fluidics, I find there are very many "engineering" formulas, obtained in empiric ways, I have learned to be rather suspicious about them and always analyse carefully the units in there, as many of the "constants" are very physics dependet, based on often forgotten assumptions. 
--
Good luck
Ivar                                                
                                                
                            Hi
if I remember right (CFD is not my main occupation) head losses in a pipe system comes from known pipe parameters: length, section ..., liquide properties: density, viscuosity ... environmental values: temperature, pressure ..., but also surface roughness of the piping, all for laminar flow, and with turbulences everything is even more fun ;)
Formulas relating these are Poiseille, for pressure drop of the flow, mass & momentum conservation in general ...
So if you can express all this in a reasonnable way , including enough BC, as you are suggesting, except for one unknown (i.e pipe surface roughness), then you can get Comsol to find by least square (via a global equation) the best fit for this unknown (sure I suppose there is only 1 unique solution)
It's not a precooked answer, but at least it's the methodology I would use ;)
PS: in engineering fluidics, I find there are very many "engineering" formulas, obtained in empiric ways, I have learned to be rather suspicious about them and always analyse carefully the units in there, as many of the "constants" are very physics dependet, based on often forgotten assumptions. 
--
Good luck
Ivar