PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF THE BERNOULLI EQUATION

THE PITOT TUBE

It is an accurate device for measuring velocity of a fluid in motion

It consists of a glass tube that bends at 90o of short length open at both ends. The bent leg is
directed upstream such that a stagnation point is created immediately in front of the opening
this will cause the fluid in that place to be static that is having zero velocity.

PRINCIPLE

It works on the principle that if the velocity of flow at a point becomes zero the pressure is
increased due to conversion of kinetic energy into pressure.

The pipe contains a liquid that is flowing steadly and a streamline that connects point 1 and 2

The liquid level rises in the first tube to a height equal to the pressure head and elevation head
thus using the height of the risen liquid we could determine the pressure at the point 1 which is
the static pressure.

As the liquid particle moves from point 1 to 2 it decelerates until its velocity comes to zero ,the
particle come to rest at point 2 , because of the particle gets trapped in the tube having the
static fluid. This effect increases the water column to additional height i.e. the rise of liquid level
is higher than the first tube. This additional height is called the velocity head or the dynamic
head.

The distance between point 1 and 2 is small hence viscous effect is negligible thus we can
apply the Bernoulli equation
CALCULATIONS

Applying bernoullis equation between stagnation point 2 and point 1 in the undisturbed flow at
the same horizontal level we get

P1/w + V21/2g + Z1 = P2/w + V2 2/2g + Z2 (1)

Because the points 1 and 2 are at the same level from the datum line then the Z and Z cancel

Thus

P1/w + V12/2g = P2/w + V22/2g

Also the velocity at point 2 is equal to zero thus the velocity head is equal to zero

V22/2g = 0

The pressure head at point 1 will be equal to H

So P1/w = H

And P2/w = H + h

Thefore

H + V12/2g = H + h + 0

V12/2g = h

V = √ 2 gh
When a pitot tube is placed in the fluid stream the flow along its outer surface gets accelerated
and causes the static pressure to decrease. Also the stem, which is perpendicular to the flow
direction tends to produce an excess pressure head. In order to take these effects into
consideration equation (1) is modified to give the actual velocities as;

V = C √ 2 gh

Where, C is a connective coefficient which takes into account the effect of stem and bent leg.

The most commonly used form of pitot static tube known as the prandle pitot tube is so
designed that the effect of stem and bent leg cancel each other i.e C = 1