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What Is the Moody Chart?

B. Turner
B. Turner

The Moody chart is a tool that is widely used in plumbing and piping work. This resource is valued by everyone from piping designers and manufacturers to plumbers and installers. Using this chart, piping professionals are able to quickly and easily determine how the friction created by the pipe walls impacts flow rates, pressure and other operating features within a plumbing system. The Moody chart, or Moody diagram dates back to the 1940s, and has changed little since that time.

L.F. Moody developed the Moody chart back in the 1940s. It was first published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), in an industry journal. Since that time, the Moody diagram has become an important tool for plumbers and piping designers throughout the world. It can be found in many textbooks related to these subjects, and is also used in the mechanical and chemical engineering fields. Today this chart is included in many common industry publications and handbooks used by plumbing professionals.

Man with a drill
Man with a drill

The Moody chart offers a graphical representation of the Moody friction factor, or Moody friction coefficient, which is often represented by the symbol "f." The diagram illustrates the relationship between this factor, the Reynolds number, which indicates the type of flow, and the roughness of the pipe. As piping professionals use the complex Darcy-Weishbach formula to calculate pressure loss along a piping run, they can simply refer to the Moody chart to find several important values that are needed when using this formula.

In addition to allowing users to directly determine the Moody friction factor or calculate pressure loss, the Moody chart is a valuable tool for determining many other kinds of information about a plumbing system. Using this information in this diagram, plumbers can estimate flow rate and pressure changes as fluid travels along a pipe. They may also rely on this chart to extract information like the pipe diameter, the proper pipe material to use, or the best length for the plumbing run.

Professionals in many different industries rely on the information provided in the Moody diagram to successfully design and install piping systems. This chart is used in water distribution and sewage system design, and also serves as a common resource in the sprinkler industry. It is helpful to designers and installers working in the oil and gas distribution industries, and also has applications in refrigeration, chemical distribution, and manufacturing. Almost any firm that uses hydraulic or pneumatic tubing or piping may refer to the Moody chart when designing or maintaining piping systems.

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      Man with a drill