18/03/2019 Equivalent Lengths - Engineered Software Knowledge Base - Global Site

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Equivalent Lengths
Created by Product Engineer on Aug 28, 2014

When the equivalent length method is used to account for valve and fitting losses, the valve/fitting loss is expressed as a
length which is added to the actual pipeline length. When the equivalent length is substituted into the Darcy-Weisbach
equation, the loss due to the valve/fitting is as follows:

2
Le v
(1) hL(VF) = f ( )
D 2g

where, hL(VF) = valve/fitting head loss

f = friction factor
Le = equivalent length
v = fluid velocity
D = pipe diameter
g = gravitational constant

Many engineering handbooks contain tables of equivalent lengths.

When the loss coefficient (or K value) method is used, the K value is multiplied by the velocity head to give the
valve/fitting head loss:

2
v
(2) hL(VF) = K
2g

From equations 1 and 2 it can be seen that:

Le
(3) K = f( )
D

To demonstrate that the two methods give similar results, we will compare two systems.Both of the systems have 100
feet long, 4 inch diameter pipes. Each pipeline has three long radius 90° elbows, one globe valve, and one swing check
valve.
The first pipeline (Pipe01) uses loss coefficients which are obtained from the standard valve and fitting table shipped with
PIPE-FLO. The total K value for all three valves/fittings is 7.856. The second pipeline (Pipe02) uses equivalent lengths
obtained from the table below:

Valve/Fitting Pipe Equivalent Length Quantity Total Length (ft)

Size (in) (ft)

Long Radius 90° 4 4.6 3 13.8

Elbow

Globe Valve, open 4 110 1 110

Swing Check Valve 4 38 1 38

Total Valve/Fitting Equivalent Length = 161.8

ft

For Pipe02, the total equivalent length of 161.8 ft is added to the pipeline length of 100 ft to give an overall length of 261.8
ft.

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18/03/2019 Equivalent Lengths - Engineered Software Knowledge Base - Global Site

As expected, when the calculations are performed for these two pipelines, their results are not identical but they are
reasonably close (for a flow rate of 200 US gpm, Pipe01 has a pressure drop of 2.321 psi and Pipe02 has a pressure
drop of 2.572 psi).

One benefit to using valves and fittings, instead of the equivalent length, is that the length listed for a pipeline in the
printed reports will be the actual length.Another advantage in using the loss coefficients in PIPE-FLO is that when you
view the pipeline in the Graph Window the head loss due to the valves/fittings (the minor loss) is graphed along with the
total pipeline loss.

If you have equivalent length data and you would rather use loss coefficients, you can calculate the corresponding K
values using equation 3. You can then enter the calculated K values as Fixed K's in the Valve & Fittings tab. If you have a
number of valves/fittings for which you have equivalent length data, you can calculate the corresponding K values and
then create your own valve/fitting table.

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