Small Garage Flowbench Build

[stef-1]

I'll have a look around ebay for one - there are lots of lab supplies on there.

[Malvin]

If there is local Agway Farm center near you they will
have the syringes in just about any size needed.

I almost forgot nice job on the flow bench build &
manometers.

Malvin

[stef-1]

Thanks for the comments.
Made some modifications to the incline manometer and painted it. It's upside down in this pic though



Fitted vertical manometer back up. Just need to glue in tube.



Also got the rest of the backboard made in aluminium. It also doubles as a small shelf. Just needs to be attached to the frame.

[stef-1]

Aluminium shelf/backboard now attached to frame.



Incline manometer board refitted with steel rule, level and then mounted to backboard. Rule is 600mm long with 8" rise.



That's about all for now. Just figuring out the wells and got to glue tubing onto the manometer boards, etc. Hopefully getting Bruce to supply me with some Clippard valves for easy change between intake and exhaust testing too.

[johno]

Hey mate, how did you get the flow manometer steel ruler marked at the correct logorythmic percentage increments?

[stef-1]

I didn't. It's just a normal steel rule. With a large enough well area it's just a trig calc for the actual deltaP across the orifice. All that I will do is take the reading in mm off the scale and let a spreadsheet do the rest.

[stef-1]

During the week my dad dug out some threaded knobs he thought I might find useful. Their thread size was the same as the bolts holding on the incline manometer so after cutting down their threads a little I fitted them. They make it easier to adjust the level of the incline manometer.



I also glued on the clear vinyl tubing to the manometer boards. In order to prevent the tube from lifting at the ends of the boards I cut up some aluminium sheet into 3/4" x 3/4" squares. These were drilled for a screw fixing and then I used an old air chisel tool (for swaging panels for a flush joint) to put a set in them. This allowed them to clamp down nicely on the tubing.







I also found these parts for RC boats to be useful. The fittings on the left are through-hull fittings and are perfect for making wells with. The purple part on the right is a fuel filter. This worked to help calm a manometer bounce problem but I think that problem lies in the pickups. They need to be soldered up and a smaller hole drilled in them to eliminate the bounce.



I made up a temporary well to test the fittings out. It's a lab jar which is made from plastic of a reasonable thickness. It was easy to fit the fittings and they never leaked during testing. I did find at this point a bounce problem with the incline manometer. It would bounce approximately 1/2", not a fast bounce but moving up and down about every second.







Waiting for some larger lab jars to turn up now to make the actual wells out of. A jar diameter of 80mm should give me enough area to make the scale readings almost 1:1.
Need to start work on the spreadsheet for it now too.

[49-1183904562]

Stef,

It is looking good, i like the simplicity of your monometers.

Rick



Edited By 1960FL on 1250530913

[bruce]

Great work!! Looks good

Bruce

[Flash]

look vary nice!
wish i had done the pullup design now.

but to late, it work! ...You know the saying, "if it's not broke Don't Fix it"

[jfholm]

Stef,
Very well thought out. Lots of very neat space saving items. I love the little lip/tray to hold tools etc.
John

[stef-1]

Thanks for the comments guys

[msj442]

looks nice stef. very clean

max

[stef-1]

Started on my spreadsheet program to go with the flowbench this week. The first tab is used to set up the manometer readings.



The next tab is used to setup the conditions for the test run and to determine the leakage of the cylinder head test setup.



The next tab is used to calculate the acfm during the test. It also calulates the valve Cd as per Superflow method i.e. Valve area minus stem area. Calculation of flow is done using the method in SAE720214 - Design Refinement of Induction and Exhaust Systems Using Steady-State Flow Bench Techniques. The method in the paper takes into account the compressibility of air and also uses an iteration method to home in on the true Cd value for the orifice plate.



Next tabs to do are for flow analysis of a complete test run to give various Cd results for different parts of the intake/exhaust port and to provide graphs. I also need to do a test record sheet to record any hand written results (if a computer is not handy near the flowbench).

I have also just received the 80mm lab jars so hopefully over the weekend I can make the wells up properly.

[UKDoug]

Looking great Stef.

So when should i pop over with my plates and digital manometer?