Analysis of the Effect of Bend Angle Outlet Main Steam Line on the Steam Flow Characteristic

Pressure drop is one of the problems that can occur due to bend components in the piping system. To minimize the pressure drop, modification of the bend pipe component was made at the bend outlet of the main steam line. In this study, an analysis of the effect of the bend angle on the pressure drop was carried out on the pressure and velocity steam distribution. The angle variations used are 30°, 45°, and 60° with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method simulated by CFD software. The simulation results show that the lower the angle of curvature of the pipe, the lower the pressure drop and the lowest pressure drop is obtained in the 30° bend domain of 26.2 kPa. The pressure distribution pattern shows that the pressure value will increase from the inner wall to the outer wall. The greater the bend pipe angle, the greater the possibility of flow separation and pressure drop value. The velocity distribution pattern shows that the flow velocity becomes non-uniform after passing through the bend pipe. The greater the bend angle, the sharper the flow direction so that the time taken is longer. In addition, the greater the bend pipe angle, the greater the flow stagnation.