Investigation of pressure loss in pipe flow

Pipe flows are used in engineering applications and many different disciplines. For example, it was used in hydraulic systems, to deliver water to high level, in fire fighting systems, in ventilation systems etc. Fan and pumps are utilized to deliver fluid. It is important to know the pressure losses that will occur in the flow to determine power of fan or pump. Incomplete loss calculations cause the end result system not to work. Moreover, it may cause high costs due to unnecessary high power of fan and pump. The energy / pressure losses in the pipe are divided into two. One of them is the loss that is caused by friction. It is called friction loss (major loss). Shortly, this is the loss that occurs in the pipe without any change in flow cross section and flow direction. The other one is the losses that occur in the pipe when there is a change in the flow direction or flow cross section. It is called local loss (minor loss). Shortly, they are losses caused by factors like elbows, sudden contraction and expansion, fittings. In this study, analytical and experimental results were compared with numerical analysis results. The accuracy of the results obtained by numerical analysis has been examined. According to the results, it can be seen that similar values can be obtained by numerical analysis. Using numerical analysis method rather than many different experimental researches provides significant timing and economical benefit. In this study, elbow losses were also investigated and the effect of velocity, pipe diameter and radius of rotation on elbow losses was investigated. According to these results, the loss coefficient decreases as the velocity increases, and the loss coefficient increases as the diameter increases. It has also been shown that significant amounts of loss are prevented by soft elbow rotation.