Henry Darcy and His Law

History of the Darcy-Weisbach Equation

Henry Darcy Main



The History of the Darcy-Weisbach Equation for Pipe Flow Resistance
Glenn O. Brown
Proceedings of the 150th Anniversary Conference of ASCE
Washington, D.C., November, 3-6, 2002, A. Fredrich, and J. Rogers eds.,
American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.


Abstract
The historical development of the Darcy-Weisbach equation for pipe flow resistance is examined. A concise examination of the evolution of the equation itself and the Darcy friction factor is presented from their inception to the present day. The contributions of Chézy, Weisbach, Darcy, Poiseuille, Hagen, Prandtl, Blasius, von Kármán, Nikuradse, Colebrook, White, Rouse and Moody are described.