Understanding Pressure Drop
Pressure drop, or friction loss, is the reduction in pressure that occurs as a fluid flows through a pipe. This loss is caused by friction between the fluid and the pipe walls. Calculating pressure drop is essential for correctly sizing pumps, as the pump must be powerful enough to overcome this resistance.
This calculator uses the Darcy-Weisbach equation, which involves calculating the Reynolds number to determine the flow regime (laminar or turbulent) and then finding a friction factor to calculate the final head loss, which is converted to PSI.