The results for the mitre, elbow and bend show that the loss coefficient K falls
substantially as the radius of the bend is increased. Many previous experiments have
indicated that, with a value of Re around 2 × 104
, K would be expected to reduce,
from a value of about 1.4 for the mitre bend, to a value around 0.3 when R/D = 3. The
values obtained in this experiment are in good agreement with these expectations.
For the enlargement, Equation (10.6) provides a theoretical value of K. In this case,
this theoretical value is
The measured value is significantly higher, at 0.25. Perhaps the piezometer tapping
downstream of the enlargement is placed too close to allow the full recovery of
piezometric pressure to take place . Moreover, the value of ∆hf is in this case about
one half that of ∆H. Therefore, if there is significant error in the computed effect of
pipe friction, there will be a noticeable effect on the resulting value of K. For the
contraction, there is no theoretical value of K. However, Equation (10.8) may be used
to calculate Vc/Vd from the measurements:
This is a plausible value for the contraction coefficient of the jet at entry the
contracted pipe, and it lies between the extreme values of about 0.6 and 1.0 discussed
earlier.