Scholarly record

A REVIEW OF HYDRAULIC ASPECTS AND CALCULATION METHODS OF LOCAL HEAD LOSSES FOCUSSING ON GATE VALVES AND CHECK VALVES

Zsolt Marossy

Abstract

Energy efficiency is a key factor of today?s engineering practice. Water and wastewater systems (made up of supply and disposal networks, treatment plants etc.) often contain under pressure sections. Their energy efficiency strongly depends on the accuracy of the head loss evaluation including local head loss. In these systems a great amount of local head loss is given by different valves. Gate valves and check valves are being widely used in water and wastewater systems, therefore this article focuses especially on these two types of pressure system elements. This paper reviews the basic parameters regarding the study of local head losses in pipeline systems: significant liquid properties, the bases of theoretical approaches of head loss calculation, methods for evaluation/approximation of local hydraulic head losses, specific features regarding gate type valves and check valves. Comparison of the coefficients given in different literature sources for calculating local head losses in valves will be performed. In conclusion it is showed the importance of knowing the loss coefficients not just by type of the element, but also regarding to the manufacturer.

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