Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

When a fluid flow through a pipe line consisting of straight pipe fittings, there is a

definite loss of pressure due to friction. This loss of head is often considerable and has been

investigated many times.

In every pipeline system there is a head due to the friction caused by the fluid flowing in

the line. In addition to the loss in straight pipe there is a considerable loss due to the fittings

and valves in the installation, and many investigations have been made to determine these

losses.

Work had been done as early as 1880 on flow in straight pipe but none on fittings and

valves. Giesecke (1) was possibly the first to conduct a friction loss investigation on a fitting.

The method of test consisted of allowing water to flow from one tank to another, with and

without the given pipes and fittings in the connecting line. The fiitings tested were elbowa of

one half to three inches nominal pipe diameters.

D.E Foster (2), using a modification of a formula developed by Meier (3), calculated the

losses for various type fittings and tabulated these losses for pipe sizes ranging from one-half

inch to twelve inches in diameter.

The fricyion losses of a fluid flowing through a pipe is only a special case of a general

law of the resistance between a solid and fluid in relative motion. If a solid body of any shape

be immersed in a fluid stream and the velocity of the fluid past the body is small in comparison

to the velocity of the sound, it has been found experimentally that the resisting force depends

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only on roughness, size and shape of the solid and on the velocity, density, and viscosity of the

fluid.