Pressure Drop of Pipe Flow in a Manifold Block

We deal with a solid manifold block and a laminated manifold block that are used for connecting hydraulic components. They are useful for reducing the space and weight of hydraulic systems. We investigate pressure drops of their pipe flow with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and compare those of two types. The majority of all pressure drops in both types is pressure drop at corners. In solid type, pressure drop is affected by the distance between two corners and angle of corner against upstream corner. Solid type has round sectional area ,but laminated type has a square one. So, pressure drop of laminated type is smaller than that of solid type. By experiment of visualization with an acrylic manifold block and comparison of pressure drop of CFD results with experimental results, the validity of CFD results is proved unless heavy cavitation occurs.