• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2017

In this paper, the flow characteristics of water in the water supply pipes of a WBC array were evaluated. We simulated the flow velocities and pressures for a standard pipe, an expansion pipe with a concentric reducer, and an expansion pipe with an eccentric reducer using computational fluid dynamics. In the case of the standard pipe, when the inlet flow velocities were 0.5 m/s and 2.0 m/s, the maximum flow velocities at the center of the WBC array were 0.54 m/s and 2.74 m/s, respectively, which were the greatest values among those of all the pipe models considered. In the case of the expansion pipe, the maximum flow velocities at the center of the WBC array were almost the same under the same conditions regardless of the type of reducer. The pressure losses in the pipe due to the concentric and eccentric reducers were found to be (165.09 ${\times}$ inlet $velocity^{1.6677}$) and (210.98 ${\times}$ inlet $velocity^{1.6478}$), respectively. The coefficient of determination at this time was greater than 0.99 and was the same for both the models. As a simulation result, it was found that in order to reduce the pressure loss when pipe with WBC array is connected with a conventional pipe, diameter of the pipe with WBC array at that section should be enlarged by one step, and then connected to the conventional pipe with a concentric reducer.