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airspirit · 08-01-2002, 01:24 PM

It will take the path of least resistance. You are correct. In this case, though, the path of least resistance will line up, after a couple of seconds, with the path of the force exerted by the pump. In any fluid system you'll see this happen. You are right in your diagram, though. When the system starts up, you will have exactly what you are describing happen. As the force from the outlets exerts itself on the system, though, the water will slowly build up momentum in a spiralling pattern, and eventually you'll get a full-on whirlpool effect. It is the same reason that in that picture on that post with the 1" guy the water in the funnel started a whirlpool: the inlet was offset (the hose) in relation to the funnel and it started forcing it to whirl like mad. This same thing will happen when it is the outlets that are offset. This is a well documented phenomenon ... I don't know how else to describe it except that: it will happen (if you build it they will come ... hehe).

edit: this diagram I made is definitely not to scale. The outlets would be narrower (they are half the volume of the inlet). Part of the confusion might be coming from my bad diagram. In any event, to prevent this possibility (it's not, but it'll make things clearer) you could do it like I'll diagram in my next post.

08-01-2002, 01:24 PM	#86
airspirit Been /.'d... have you? Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Moscow, ID Posts: 1,986	It will take the path of least resistance. You are correct. In this case, though, the path of least resistance will line up, after a couple of seconds, with the path of the force exerted by the pump. In any fluid system you'll see this happen. You are right in your diagram, though. When the system starts up, you will have exactly what you are describing happen. As the force from the outlets exerts itself on the system, though, the water will slowly build up momentum in a spiralling pattern, and eventually you'll get a full-on whirlpool effect. It is the same reason that in that picture on that post with the 1" guy the water in the funnel started a whirlpool: the inlet was offset (the hose) in relation to the funnel and it started forcing it to whirl like mad. This same thing will happen when it is the outlets that are offset. This is a well documented phenomenon ... I don't know how else to describe it except that: it will happen (if you build it they will come ... hehe). edit: this diagram I made is definitely not to scale. The outlets would be narrower (they are half the volume of the inlet). Part of the confusion might be coming from my bad diagram. In any event, to prevent this possibility (it's not, but it'll make things clearer) you could do it like I'll diagram in my next post.