Pressure Losses and Limiting Reynolds Numbers for Non-Newtonian Fluids in Short Square-Edged Orifice Plates

Correlations predicting the pressure loss coefficient along with the laminar, transitional, and turbulent limiting Reynolds numbers with the β ratio are presented for short square-edged orifice plates. The knowledge of pressure losses across orifices is a very important industrial problem while predicting pressure losses in piping systems. Similarly, it is important to define stable operating regions for the application of a short orifice at lower Reynolds numbers. This work experimentally determined pressure loss coefficients for square-edged orifices for orifice-to-diameter ratios of $β$ = 0.2, 0.3, 0.57, and 0.7 for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids in both laminar and turbulent flow regimes.