Professional Skills for Chemical Engineers MS Excel – Tutorial 4

BEng/MEng Chemical Engineering, Aston University

Real World Chemical Engineering

This tutorial presents the application of MS Excel to solve a problem encountered in real life.
The objective is to find the pressure drop across the 4 inch section of pipe by manipulating
the data supplied in spreadsheet 1, then vary the velocity term to achieve a pressure drop of
2 bar.

*This hand out is to be used in conjunction with

1) The pipeline in question is 4 inches in diameter - use the IF Function to eliminate all
other pipe lengths that aren’t 4 inches in diameter

i) Position the cursor over the sorted length column (Cell E9) and type = IF into the
taskbar to select the IF Function.
ii) First Term - What you are comparing (want column A9 to be equal to 4)
iii) Second term – What you want if true (want cell to be equal to D9 (estimate
length), if first statement is true)
iv) Third term – What you want if not true (want cell to be equal to zero, as you will
be required to get the SUM of all rows)
v) Drag column down for entire row
vi) Convert all of Column E into meters and position in Column F. Use the
CONVERT function or clearly show the conversion factor in a separate cell.

2) Use the following Darcy-Weisbach pressure drop equation to determine the pressure
drop across the 4 inch section of pipe:

Where:

*All above are SI Units

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 Professional Skills for Chemical Engineers MS Excel – Tutorial 4
BEng/MEng Chemical Engineering, Aston University

f = 1.5x10-6 (normally have to calculate Reynolds Number then consult Moody Diagram –
beyond this session)
L = The SUM of all sorted lengths in meters (Column F)
D = Need to convert 4 inch into meters - use the unit conversions below:
1inch = 25.4 mm
1m = 1000 mm
V = 3 m/s (standard pump discharge velocity in pipe)

𝜌𝜌 = the density of water in SI units

NOTE: Use the CONVERT function or alternatively clearly show the conversion factor in a
separate cell.

What value do you have for the pressure drop?

Answer…………………………… Pa
*to 3 decimal places

And finally, change the answer into bar (more conventional engineering units – not SI)
1 bar = 1x105 Pa
Carry out this unit conversion in cell C29.
What value do you have for the conventional pressure drop?

Answer…………………………… bar
* to 4 decimal places

3) And now for the nice bit……. as you increase the velocity term, the pressure drop will
increase - set the pressure to 2 bar by varying the velocity term using the GOAL SEEK
function.

i) Click on the data tab, and then What-if Analysis. From the drop down select the
GOAL SEEK option.
ii) Set Cell – What cell you want to change with the goal seek (in our case the final
pressure in bar - C29)

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 Professional Skills for Chemical Engineers MS Excel – Tutorial 4
BEng/MEng Chemical Engineering, Aston University

iii) To value – What value do you want the cell to be set to? What is your goal? (in
our case 2)

iv) By changing cell – what value do you want to change in order to achieve the
goal? (in our case the velocity term – C26)
What value do you now have for the velocity term?

Answer…………………………… m/s
*to 3 decimal places

4) Bonus round……make a graph in TAB 1 with velocity on the x-axis and pressure drop on
the y-axis – insert the velocity terms manually into the pressure drop equation and
tabulate the pressure drop values.

a) What kind of relationship exists between the pair of variables?

Answer………………………………………………………………………..
b) Add the axis titles; including the units, and a black coloured trend line with the
equation and the R2 value. Delete the graph title and change the data points to the
colour red in the plot.