Study on Pressure Drop Characteristics of Single Phase Turbulent Flow in Pipe Bend for High Reynolds Number

Pressure drop characteristics of turbulent flow through 90 degree pipe bends are numerically investigated by computational fluid dynamic simulation using k-ε RNG turbulence model with standard wall function. After the validation of present model against existing experimental results, a detailed study has been performed to investigate the pressure distribution and pressure drop characteristics over a wide range of Reynolds number (Re = 1×105 to 10×105) and for different curvature ratio (RC/D = 1 to 5) to study pressure loss coefficient in terms of Reynolds number and curvature ration to provide cost effective solutions to design of the pipe bends. A number of important results have been achieved showing the distribution of pressure at different location throughout the bend for different Re and Rc/D. Numerical results shows the dependency of pressure distribution and pressure loss coefficient for different Reynolds number and curvature ratio throughout the bend.