Pressure at a bend in a pipe This is a question from a study guide for a military officer exam:
I have fluid flowing through an elbow in a pipe (the elbow is in the shape of an upside down and backwards "J") and the flow goes from south to north to east. If holes are drilled at the upper left outside part of the bend and the lower right inside part of the bend, at which point will pressure be lower? Please see attached image for a picture of the question.
When I have thought about this problem, I keep coming back to pressure being transmitted equally to all parts of a fluid, so I don't understand how the pressure can be different at one of the holes. The book gives the answer as the inside bend which I can force myself to accept since I can picture the fluid attempting to go straight to the outside bend hole and thus hitting that part harder, but I don't really understand it.
 A: When a pipe is bent the outside curve - what would be the longest path through the curve - has the highest pressure and the lowest speed. The inside curve - the shortest path through the curve - has the lowest pressure and the highest speed. In short, when the path of a fluid in steady-state flow bends, the pressure on the outside of the bend is always higher than the pressure on the inside of the bend. 
The pressure would be lower on the lower right inside point of the bend. 
I could no view that attached image; however, I hope that helped.
A: If you imagine the bend portion of the pipe to be a part of a circle, it becomes apparent that there is centripetal force present. As the water travels through the bend, there is a centripetal force that acts inwards towards the centre of the "circle". There must be a reactionary force to this which acts in the opposite direction, in other words the outer wall of the pipe. This reactionary force upon the area of the outer wall causes a higher pressure.
A: The same answer as above, but I also happened to have analysis results for this question. Hope this helps,

The above image is velocity contour of the cross section of the pipe.
Below Image is for Pressure

