Experimental study of wall curvature and bypass flow effects on orifice discharge coefficients

This paper presents the results of an experimental study investigating the impact of wall curvature and bypass flow on the discharge coefficients of circular orifices. To extend the range of currently available discharge coefficients, the ratio of the orifice to the pipe diameter is varied from 0.25 to 0.67. Functional relationships are developed that relate a free-discharge orifice coefficient to the ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter and the total head (velocity and pressure heads) upstream of the orifice. In addition, the use of the projected area versus surface area of the orifice for determining discharge coefficients is investigated and the results show that both approaches yield similar observations. The results of this experimental study are particularly useful for the case of sparger design.