Effect of minor losses during steady flow in transmission pipelines – Case study “water transmission system upgrade in Northern Saudi Arabia”

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to give a better understanding on the effect of minor losses on water transmission pipelines. The effect of the minor losses on the passing discharge is studied by analyzing the equation of the total head loss. Moreover, a computerized tool that facilitates the calculation of the minor losses is presented in this paper. The tool is developed using list processing (LISP) which is a programing language. The tool aims to simplify the calculation of the minor losses total resistance coefficient in a pipeline.A case study is presented, where the upgrade of an existing transmission system comprising a very long pipeline is studied. The work comprises studying the effects of the minor losses during two phases, the existing and upgraded phases. The results showed that the value of the minor losses during the existing phase is negligible, while during the upgraded phase the value is considerable and affects the design.