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Head
- Fluid Flow
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Fluid
Flow Table of Contents
Since the units for all the different forms of energy in
Equation 3-11 are measured in units of distance,
these terms are sometimes referred to as "heads" (pressure head,
velocity head, and elevation head). The term
head is used by engineers in reference to pressure. It is a reference
to the height, typically in feet, of a column of
water that a given pressure will support. Each of the
energies possessed by a fluid can be expressed in terms of head. The elevation
head represents the potential energy of a
fluid due to its elevation above a reference level. The velocity
head represents the kinetic energy of the fluid. It is the height in feet that a
flowing fluid would rise in a column if all
of its kinetic energy were converted to potential energy. The pressure
head represents the flow energy of a column of fluid whose weight is equivalent
to the pressure of the fluid.
The sum of the elevation head, velocity head, and pressure head
of a fluid is called the total head. Thus,
Bernoulli’s equation states that the total head of the fluid is constant.
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