In fluid dynamics, the Hagen–Poiseuille equation, also known as the Hagen–Poiseuille law, Poiseuille law or Poiseuille equation, is a physical law that gives the pressure drop in an incompressible and Newtonian fluid in laminar flow flowing through a long cylindrical pipe of constant cross section. It can be successfully applied to air flow in the airways of the lungs, or the flow through a drinking straw or through a hypodermic needle. It was experimentally derived independently by Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille in 1838 and Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen, and published by Hagen in 1839 and then by Poiseuille in 1840–41 and 1846. The theoretical justification of the Poiseuille law was given by George Stokes in 1845.
The assumptions of the equation are that the fluid is incompressible and Newtonian; the flow is laminar through a pipe of constant circular cross-section that is substantially longer than its diameter; and there is no acceleration of fluid in the pipe. For velocities and pipe diameters above a threshold, actual fluid flow is not laminar but turbulent, leading to larger pressure drops than calculated by the Hagen–Poiseuille equation.
Poiseuille's equation describes the pressure drop due to the viscosity of the fluid; other types of pressure drops may still occur in a fluid (see a demonstration here). For example, the pressure needed to drive a viscous fluid up against gravity would contain both that as needed in Poiseuille's law plus that as needed in Bernoulli's equation, such that any point in the flow would have a pressure greater than zero (otherwise no flow would happen).
Another example is when blood flows into a narrower constriction, its speed will be greater than in a larger diameter (due to continuity of volumetric flow rate), and its pressure will be lower than in a larger diameter (due to Bernoulli's equation). However, the viscosity of blood will cause additional pressure drop along the direction of flow, which is proportional to length traveled (as per Poiseuille's law). Both effects contribute to the actual pressure drop.
Equation In standard fluid-kinetics notation:
where is the pressure difference between the two ends, is the length of pipe, is the dynamic viscosity, is the volumetric flow rate, is the pipe radius, is the cross-sectional area of pipe.
The equation does not hold close to the pipe entrance.
The equation fails in the limit of low viscosity, wide and/or short pipe. Low viscosity or a wide pipe may result in turbulent flow, making it necessary to use more complex models, such as the Darcy–Weisbach equation. The ratio of length to radius of a pipe should be greater than 1/48 of the Reynolds number for the Hagen–Poiseuille law to be valid. If the pipe is too short, the Hagen–Poiseuille equation may result in unphysically high flow rates; the flow is bounded by Bernoulli's principle, under less restrictive conditions, by
because it is impossible to have negative (absolute) pressure (not to be confused with gauge pressure) in an incompressible flow.
Relation to the Darcy–Weisbach equation
Normally, Hagen–Poiseuille flow implies not just the relation for the pressure drop, above, but also the full solution for the laminar flow profile, which is parabolic. However, the result for the pressure drop can be extended to turbulent flow by inferring an effective turbulent viscosity in the case of turbulent flow, even though the flow profile in turbulent flow is strictly speaking not actually parabolic. In both cases, laminar or turbulent, the pressure drop is related to the stress at the wall, which determines the so-called friction factor. The wall stress can be determined phenomenologically by the Darcy–Weisbach equation in the field of hydraulics, given a relationship for the friction factor in terms of the Reynolds number. In the case of laminar flow, for a circular cross section:
where is the Reynolds number, is the fluid density, and is the mean flow velocity, which is half the maximal flow velocity in the case of laminar flow. It proves more useful to define the Reynolds number in terms of the mean flow velocity because this quantity remains well defined even in the case of turbulent flow, whereas the maximal flow velocity may not be, or in any case, it may be difficult to infer. In this form the law approximates the Darcy friction factor, the energy (head) loss factor, friction loss factor or Darcy (friction) factor in the laminar flow at very low velocities in cylindrical tube. The theoretical derivation of a slightly different form of the law was made independently by Wiedman in 1856 and Neumann and E. Hagenbach in 1858 (1859, 1860). Hagenbach was the first who called this law Poiseuille's law.
The law is also very important in hemorheology and hemodynamics, both fields of physiology.Determinants of blood vessel resistance.
Poiseuille's law was later in 1891 extended to turbulent flow by L. R. Wilberforce, based on Hagenbach's work.
Derivation
The Hagen–Poiseuille equation can be derived from the Navier–Stokes equations. The laminar flow through a pipe of uniform (circular) cross-section is known as Hagen–Poiseuille flow. The equations governing the Hagen–Poiseuille flow can be derived directly from the Navier–Stokes momentum equations in 3D cylindrical coordinates by making the following set of assumptions:
The flow is steady ( ). The radial and azimuthal components of the fluid velocity are zero ( ). The flow is axisymmetric ( ). The flow is fully developed ( ). Here however, this can be proved via mass conservation, and the above assumptions.
Then the angular equation in the momentum equations and the continuity equation are identically satisfied. The radial momentum equation reduces to , i.e., the pressure is a function of the axial coordinate only. For brevity, use instead of . The axial momentum equation reduces to
where is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid. In the above equation, the left-hand side is only a function of and the right-hand side term is only a function of , implying that both terms must be the same constant. Evaluating this constant is straightforward. If we take the length of the pipe to be and denote the pressure difference between the two ends of the pipe by (high pressure minus low pressure), then the constant is simply
defined such that is positive. The solution is
Since needs to be finite at , . The no slip boundary condition at the pipe wall requires that at (radius of the pipe), which yields . Thus we have finally the following parabolic velocity profile:
The maximum velocity occurs at the pipe centerline (), . The average velocity can be obtained by integrating over the pipe cross section,
The easily measurable quantity in experiments is the volumetric flow rate . Rearrangement of this gives the Hagen–Poiseuille equation
Although more lengthy than directly using the Navier–Stokes equations, an alternative method of deriving the Hagen–Poiseuille equation is as follows.
Liquid flow through a pipe Assume the liquid exhibits laminar flow. Laminar flow in a round pipe prescribes that there are a bunch of circular layers (lamina) of liquid, each having a velocity determined only by their radial distance from the center of the tube. Also assume the center is moving fastest while the liquid touching the walls of the tube is stationary (due to the no-slip condition).
To figure out the motion of the liquid, all forces acting on each lamina must be known: The pressure force pushing the liquid through the tube is the change in pressure multiplied by the area: . This force is in the direction of the motion of the liquid. The negative sign comes from the conventional way we define . Viscosity effects will pull from the faster lamina immediately closer to the center of the tube. Viscosity effects will drag from the slower lamina immediately closer to the walls of the tube.
Viscosity
When two layers of liquid in contact with each other move at different speeds, there will be a shear force between them. This force is proportional to the area of contact , the velocity gradient perpendicular to the direction of flow , and a proportionality constant (viscosity) and is given by
The negative sign is in there because we are concerned with the faster moving liquid (top in figure), which is being slowed by the slower liquid (bottom in figure). By Newton's third law of motion, the force on the slower liquid is equal and opposite (no negative sign) to the force on the faster liquid. This equation assumes that the area of contact is so large that we can ignore any effects from the edges and that the fluids behave as Newtonian fluids.
Faster lamina Assume that we are figuring out the force on the lamina with radius . From the equation above, we need to know the area of contact and the velocity gradient. Think of the lamina as a ring of radius , thickness , and length . The area of contact between the lamina and the faster one is simply the surface area of the cylinder: . We don't know the exact form for the velocity of the liquid within the tube yet, but we do know (from our assumption above) that it is dependent on the radius. Therefore, the velocity gradient is the change of the velocity with respect to the change in the radius at the intersection of these two laminae. That intersection is at a radius of . So, considering that this force will be positive with respect to the movement of the liquid (but the derivative of the velocity is negative), the final form of the equation becomes
where the vertical bar and subscript following the derivative indicates that it should be taken at a radius of .
Slower lamina Next let's find the force of drag from the slower lamina. We need to calculate the same values that we did for the force from the faster lamina. In this case, the area of contact is at instead of . Also, we need to remember that this force opposes the direction of movement of the liquid and will therefore be negative (and that the derivative of the velocity is negative).
Putting it all together To find the solution for the flow of a laminar layer through a tube, we need to make one last assumption. There is no acceleration of liquid in the pipe, and by Newton's first law, there is no net force. If there is no net force then we can add all of the forces together to get zero
or
First, to get everything happening at the same point, use the first two terms of a Taylor series expansion of the velocity gradient:
The expression is valid for all laminae. Grouping like terms and dropping the vertical bar since all derivatives are assumed to be at radius ,
Finally, put this expression in the form of a differential equation, dropping the term quadratic in .
The above equation is the same as the one obtained from the Navier–Stokes equations and the derivation from here on follows as before.
Startup of Poiseuille flow in a pipe When a constant pressure gradient is applied between two ends of a long pipe, the flow will not immediately obtain Poiseuille profile, rather it develops through time and reaches the Poiseuille profile at steady state. The Navier–Stokes equations reduce to
with initial and boundary conditions,
The velocity distribution is given by
where is the Bessel function of the first kind of order zero and are the positive roots of this function and is the Bessel function of the first kind of order one. As , Poiseuille solution is recovered.
Poiseuille flow in an annular section
If is the inner cylinder radii and is the outer cylinder radii, with constant applied pressure gradient between the two ends , the velocity distribution and the volume flux through the annular pipe are
When and tends to zero, the original problem is recovered.
Poiseuille flow in a pipe with an oscillating pressure gradient Flow through pipes with an oscillating pressure gradient finds applications in blood flow through large arteries. The imposed pressure gradient is given by