ISSN Online: 2379-1748
ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-472-4
ISBN Online: 978-1-56700-471-7
3rd Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
Pressure Drop Analysis Between a Straight Pipe Array and Branching Pipe System
Аннотация
Many flow systems are observed in nature, air through lungs, water through river systems, nutrients through
trees roots and branches, etc. The common feature amongst these systems is that they have branching
pattern. Previous studies have focused on advantages of branching systems under seemingly arbitrarily
imposed constraints, such as a fixed volume and area, or a minimization of energy/work usage. We are not
aware of any natural law that requires improved efficiency or these limits on volume or area. The goal of this
research has been to determine the conditions under which branching systems have a smaller pressure drop
compared to straight pipes for the same mass flow rate. From our results, we have observed that branching
systems are optimal in the sense of pressure drop for delivering a given mass flow to many outlets.