Problem Statement

Known

Water enters a rotating sprinkler through the center stem and leaves through identical nozzle openings at the arm tips.

Treat the water inside the sprinkler as incompressible and use a control volume that moves with the sprinkler head.

Find

Determine the exit speed of the water relative to each nozzle, then compare it with the tangential exit speed seen from a fixed frame.

Analysis

For steady incompressible flow through a moving control volume, the total inflow must equal the total outflow. With \(N\) identical exits,

\[ Q = N A_2 W_2 \]

where \(W_2\) is measured relative to the nozzle. Therefore,

\[ W_2 = \frac{Q}{N A_2} \]

The rotating nozzle has tangential speed \(U=\omega R\). For this sprinkler orientation, the fixed-frame tangential exit component is modeled as

\[ V_{\theta 2}=W_2-U \]

Known / Inputs

Relative nozzle speed, W2
--
Nozzle speed, U
--
Fixed-frame tangential speed, Vθ2
--
Mass flow rate
--
Zero Vθ2 speed
--

Velocity Comparison

Mass Flow Check