Pipeline Pressure Drop Calculator

Work out pipeline pressure drop instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.

About Pipeline Pressure Drop Calculator

Pressure drop follows Darcy-Weisbach: deltaP = f L rho v^2 / (2 D g). The friction factor comes from the Reynolds number — laminar below 2300 uses 64/Re, and turbulent flow uses a Blasius-type correlation. Because pressure drop scales with velocity squared and inversely with diameter to the fifth power, diameter selection dominates pumping cost.

Formulas

Darcy-Weisbach

deltaP = f x L x rho x v^2 / (2 x D x g)

Friction factor

Laminar: f = 64/Re; turbulent: f = 0.316 / Re^0.25

Worked example

With the default values below, Pipeline Pressure Drop Calculator returns Total Pressure Drop of 44.15. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Flow Rateminimum 0 bbl/day: 50,000 bbl/day
Internal Diameterminimum 0.01 inches: 20 inches
Pipeline Lengthminimum 0 miles: 50 miles
Kinematic Viscosityminimum 0 cSt: 5 cSt

Results

Total Pressure Drop: 44.15
Flow Velocity: 1.4893
Reynolds Number: 46,121
Pressure Drop Per Mile: 0.8830

Step by step

1Values used
2Darcy-Weisbach
3Friction factor
4Total Pressure Drop= 44.15
5Flow Velocity= 1.4893
6Reynolds Number= 46,121
7Pressure Drop Per Mile= 0.8830

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 4 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does diameter matter so much?

For fixed flow, velocity falls with the square of diameter and pressure drop with roughly the fifth power. Upsizing one pipe size can halve pumping power.

When should a full Colebrook solution be used?

Whenever pipe roughness matters — in commercial steel pipe at high Reynolds number the friction factor becomes roughness-dominated, and the Blasius approximation under-predicts.