FLUID MECHANICS LABORATORY

Duhok Polytechnic University

Technical College of Engineering
Chemical Engineering Department

Lecturer's Name: Experiment No. (5)

Mr. Kawar Abid Group (A2)

Title of Experiment:

Air Flow Velocity and Pressure Coefficient Around The 90o

Rectangular Duct

Student Name:

Hayder Hassan Hussain

Date Expt. Performed:

14/02/2022

Date Report Submitted:

21/02/2022
Objective:

This experiment determines if a control volume analysis based on the linear

momentum principle is correct by measuring the resulting force applied by a curved
rectangular duct to the air moving within the duct. Another goal is to see if the
tangential velocity of air flow in the bend can be accurately approximated using a
basic idealization.

Introduction:

Pipe fittings like elbows, bends and valves are essential in many industrial
applications, such as hydraulic, nuclear and chemical engineering systems, and the
prediction of the pressure drop across these fittings is crucial in the design of piping
systems. Estimating these losses is more difficult than in straight pipe flows due to
the additional sources of local energy dissipation caused by secondary flow and flow
separation. For round elbows, the pressure drop is inversely proportional to the
curvature ratio C=R/D, where R is the elbow curvature radius and D is the diameter
of the elbow. (The symbol henceforth indicates a dimensional quantity, while
quantities with no symbols are dimensionless.) Sharp-angled elbows suffer from
higher localized losses than round elbows due to the even more intense flow
separation.

Several studies in the literature have investigated the pressure loss in 90◦ round
elbows and bends in laminar flows and turbulent flows, while only three papers have
presented results on the pressure loss in 90◦ sharp-angled mitre elbows. Kirchbach
and Schubart [11] investigated the pipe-flow pressure drop of water flowing through
smooth and rough 90◦ mitre elbows, respectively. The pressure-loss coefficient K,
i.e. the pressure drop across the elbow scaled by the dynamic pressure, was found to
be approximately equal to 1.1. Haidar measured the mitre-elbow pressure-loss
coefficient for compressible air flows to be in the range 1.3−1.6. Moujaes and
Aekula found that the pressure loss coefficient in 90◦ mitre ducts with rectangular
cross section varies between 1.22 and 1.3 at a bulk Reynolds number of more than

1
105 by using numerical calculations. Books on fluid mechanics, for example
Munson, White , and Rennels and Hudson , and engineering manuals, for example
Crane, rely on Kirchbach’s and Schubart’s data and do not report any dependence
of the pressure-loss coefficient of 90◦ mitre elbows on the bulk Reynolds number.
Crane used the experimental data of Kirchbach to correlate these pressure-loss
coefficients with the friction factor in straight pipes at the same Reynolds number.
The method of the equivalent length, developed by Ito, has also been used
extensively to express the pressure drop across elbows and junctions . The equivalent
length is the length of a straight pipe that would produce the same pressure drop as
the elbow at the same Reynolds number. For 90◦ round elbows, the equivalent length
for turbulent flows, when scaled with the diameter, has been shown to vary between
20 and 60 depending on the curvature ratio C . Crawford used a T shape junction
with one blocked side to measure the equivalent length in 90◦ sharp-angled elbows
and found it to be approximately equal to 45. An empirical formula for estimating
the equivalent length for 90◦ elbows as a function of C at high flow rates was also
proposed . It is evident that there is a dearth of studies relating minor pressure-loss
coefficients for pipe fittings, especially 90◦ sharp-angled mitre elbows, with the
Reynolds number. A symptomatic sentence on this point is found in White:
“Although K is dimensionless, it is often not correlated in the literature with the
Reynolds number...”. Motivated by this, we have carried out an experimental
investigation of the pipe flow through 90◦ sharp-angled circular mitre elbows by
varying the bulk Reynolds number R e=U∗ bD /ν (where U∗ b is the mean velocity
and D is the pipe diameter) between 500 and 60000. We have utilized both air and
water as working fluids in the same experimental facility and we have employed
three diameters for each fluid. Other objectives of the study are to relate the pressure-
drop coefficient of the elbow with the straight-pipe friction factor, to obtain
empirical correlations for the pressure-drop coefficient, and to quantify the pressure
drop in terms of the equivalent length.

2
Equipment:

• Air flow machine.

• Multi-Tube Manometer (Pressure gauge board)
• Rectangular Duct 90o

3
Procedure:

In this experiment the apparatus used involves a 90o bent rectangular duct
mounted below the contraction section of the air flow bench, from which air
is blown along the duct and exhausted to the atmosphere. It has several
pressures taps along the outer, inner, and radial walls of the duct, which are
connected to pressure transducers. The pressure taps and their geometry are
shown in Figure 1. A barometer and a thermometer are utilized to measure the
atmospheric pressure and the temperature.

Fig. 1. Schematic of 90° bend in the rectangular duct.

Calibration of the pressure transducers is the first stage of the experiment

procedures, and a monometer and a common airbox pressure are used at
that moment. The atmospheric pressure recorded by the manometer was
99mb. Five calibration pressures are measured ranging from maximum
flow to a lower flow of air.
Then the experiment data is taken by varying the flow and measuring
pressures at all sides of the duct by changing which tubes are connected to
the pressure meter. Three different flow rates are recorded by LABVIEW
in order to measure the pressure distributions along the centerline of the
duct and along the inner, outer, and radial walls of the duct wall. The
upstream duct pressure taps 0 is connected to position 0 of the manifold
4
and the airbox pressure tap is connected to position 15 on the transfer
block. These two connections remain the same throughout the experiment.
The calculation of the force of the duct is completed by the LABVIEW
program. For the radial data, non-dimensional pressure coefficients are
determined and tabulated in LABVIEW which formats all the data into a
spreadsheet.

5
Discussion:
1. Draw calculated values of Cp on Duct Shape for both outer and inner sides.

Note: The diagram was drawn by Photoshop

6
2. Draw calculated values of Cp for outer and inner walls by illustrate figure.

Inner Wall
0.2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
h=h0-100(mm) -0.2

-0.4

-0.6

-0.8

-1
CP

Outer Wall
0.5
0.4
h=h0-100(mm)

0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

-0.2
CP

3. What is the main conclusion of this experiment?

The main conclusion of this experiment was to investigate the flow around a
90 bend in duct of rectangular section in both inner and outer walls, using
pressure tapping along the walls to establish the pressure distributions, the
pressure was increased along outer wall, reached the maximum range at 90 o,
while in inner wall it decreased and reached the minimum range at 90o
4. Why static pressure is different in outer and inner sides?
Static pressure increase
On the round duct 90° elbow, Extrados (outer side) high pressure distribution
is caused by the centrifugal forces and the impact of the fluid on the elbow
wall. On the Intrados (lower or inner side), the decline and the minimum of
pressure is induced partially by the boundary-layer separation toward to inner
wall.
7
Conclusion:

The experiment's goal was met, and the force exerted on the air by the curved
rectangular duct was calculated for three distinct flows. The force was computed
using two methods of integration: integrating the outer and inner wall pressures
over the surface length, and integrating the outer and inner wall pressures over the
surface length. A control-volume analysis was also used to determine the force,
which was based on the starting and box pressures as well as the area of the
rectangular duct. At high flow rates, the size of the force was discovered to differ.
The free vortex model outperforms the experimental data in terms of coefficient
of pressure vs. radius graph.