XXVIII.—The Loss of Energy at Oblique Impact of Two Confined Streams of Water.

Extract

When two jets or streams of water moving with equal or unequal velocities meet at an angle and combine to form one common stream, the impact is usually accompanied by loss of energy, which may be large if the velocities are high. If the jets are free (exposed to air on every side), the pressures are unaltered by impact, and the loss may be readily calculated in terms of the initial velocities and angle of inclination, by an application of the equations of energy and of momentum. Where the streams are confined before and after impact—as, for example, where the streams outflowing from the impeller of a centrifugal pump impinge on the more slowly moving body of water in the volute, or where the two streams combine in the mixing chamber of a jet pump or injector,—both pressures and velocities are altered by the impact, and the available data are insufficient to enable the magnitude of the losses to be predetermined from a priori reasoning.