Minor Losses

The losses which take place in pipelines due to elbows, bends, joints, valves, and so on are at times termed as the minor losses. This is a misnomer since in many situations such losses are more significant than the losses due to pipe friction. For all minor losses in the turbulent flow, the head loss differs as the square of the velocity. Therefore a convenient technique of expressing the minor losses in flow is by means of a loss coefficient (k). The values of loss coefficient (k) for usual situations and fittings are found in standard handbooks. The form of Darcy's equation is employed to compute minor losses of separate fluid system components are stated by the equation shown below.