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PVC K Value of FIttings

PVC K Value of FIttings

PVC K Value of FIttings

(OP)
I'm looking for the K values of a 4-way PVC fitting, used for water treatment distribution. I can not verify the pipe/fitting design requirements at this time.

4-WAY Image
https://tampabay.boocoo.com/auction/uploaded/2011-5-21/c317214d2D47de2D4d452Db6ca2D5c85db298aca4way.JPG


I've contacted multiple manufacturers and they do not seem to have much of a response.

Any help is appreciated

RE: PVC K Value of FIttings

For what flow pattern do you require the K value?  Is the water flowing in 2 branches and out the other 2? Or in 1 branch and out the other 3 simultaneously? Or out the other 3 only 1 at a time?

How accurate do you need to be?  How much other piping and fittings are involved - is this 4-way fitting a small or large portion of the overall pressure drop?

In general the pressure drop through a fitting like this is only affected to a minor degree by the roughness of the material, so if you find what you need for steel fittings the data should be sufficiently accurate for PVC piping too.

Katmar Software - Engineering & Risk Analysis Software
http://katmarsoftware.com

"An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions"

RE: PVC K Value of FIttings

(OP)
Thank you KATMAR. The flow patter is in 1 and out 3 simultaneously.
The pressure drop of this fitting is ~2%.
I'm not looking for a precise value, but order of magnitude would sufice (+/- 0.3 of K value); therefore steel should provide close enough.

RE: PVC K Value of FIttings

It seems that the most frequently quoted source for this type fitting is Idelchik - "Handbook of Hydraulic Resistance". I don't have it, so hopefully one of the other members can give you some pointers.

In view of the relatively small pressure drop through the fitting I would probably use a K of 1.4 for the two outlets at right angles to the inlet, and 0.2 for the one that is straight through. All these would be based on the diameter of the outlet and the velocity in that outlet. Also, assuming everything is fully turbulent.

In the same way as you can get pressure rises rather than drops along a sparger or diverging manifold due to the conversion of velocity head to static head as the velocity decreases, you may in fact find that you get an increase in static pressure across this fitting - but of course the total head has to decrease if you consider the sum of the static and velocity heads.

Katmar Software - Engineering & Risk Analysis Software
http://katmarsoftware.com

"An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions"

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