Assessment of Hydrodynamic Losses and Pumping Energy Penalty in Corrugated Pipes

Corrugated pipes are widely used due to their mechanical flexibility; however, their corrugated internal geometry is associated with increased hydraulic losses. Previous studies have reported a non-classical increase in friction factors with pipe diameter at identical Reynolds numbers, although the underlying mechanisms and related energy implications have not been fully clarified. In this study, turbulent flow behavior and pumping power requirements in stainless-steel corrugated pipes are investigated using a validated three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) framework based on the SST k–ω turbulence model. The numerical predictions show good agreement with available experimental data, with maximum deviations remaining below approximately 12% across the validated range. The results indicate that both friction factor and pumping power increase systematically with pipe diameter under dynamically similar flow conditions, demonstrating that Reynolds-number similarity alone does not ensure flow similarity in corrugated geometries. From an energy perspective, an Energy Penalty Factor (EPF) is introduced to quantify corrugation-induced pumping requirements, and a surrogate correlation is developed to relate EPF to Reynolds number and selected dimensionless geometric parameters. The proposed formulation exhibits strong predictive performance within the investigated parameter space (R2 = 0.972) and enables rapid, CFD-free estimation of energy penalties for preliminary design and comparative evaluation of corrugated piping systems.