In the oil

Oil

An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....

 and gas

Gas

Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...

 engineering industry, the K-factor formula is used to calculate pressure drop

Pressure drop

Pressure drop is a term used to describe the decrease in pressure from one point in a pipe or tube to another point downstream. "Pressure drop" is the result of frictional forces on the fluid as it flows through the tube. The frictional forces are caused by a resistance to flow. The main...

 across fittings or a set of fittings in a piping

Piping

Within industry, piping is a system of pipes used to convey fluids from one location to another. The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of fluid....

 system. K-factor, when multiplied by ρv2/2, gives pressure drop across the fittings. K-factor can also be used to find out the equivalent length of all the fittings in a piping system. When the total pressure drop across a line (straight line + fittings) is divided by pressure drop per unit length for that line, the result is equivalent straight length of that piping system accounting for all the bends and fittings.

External links

• k-factor calculator Calculate k-factor for a set of fittings, bends, valves etc. in a piping system.
• Pipe pressure drop calculator Calculate pressure drop across a straight pipe with single phase flow.
• Equivalent length calculator based on cumulative K-factor of piping.