by Terry_Zakis » Wed Dec 28, 2005 2:52 pm
Hello Everyone,
I hope I'm looking at this correctly. I don't remember if the sheet I'm looking at was posted, but I'm now looking at my file "AmtkVac_115923_Parallel_061203.xls", Tab "OrificeFlow_Plots", (9th tab from the front), the Chart Date is 04/16/03, there are 4 motor plots for the 115923, being 4, 8, 12, or 16 motors. There are also 13 plots for various orifice sizes, and their Beta ratios (orifice diam / pipe inside diameter), and one plot for a 6-inch averaging pitot tube.
Using this chart, lets look at the 8-motor case, dark green diamond markers with dashed line. You will see that 8 of these motors will pull just over 600 cfm with a total depression of 50 inches w.c.. That's the total dp available to still get 600 cfm. The total consists of the orifice plate pressure drop, and the unit under test pressure drop, and any other internal drops through the bench, whether inlet or exhaust.
Now, from the horizontal 600 cfm flow line, you'll see that it crosses 6 different orifice combinations, and the 6-inch averaging pitot tube line. The 6" pipes with .6, .7, and .725 Betas will need orifice dp's of app. 10", 5", and 4" w.c. respectively for the orifice's alone. This would calc out to be orifice plates of 3.6", 4.2", and 4.35", for installation in a 6-inch pipe, which is what my orifice provers are based upon.
So you are correct in going to a larger orifice plate would chew up less of the total depression that motors would provide. In my design process, as you see on this chart, I also looked at larger pipe orifices (8-inch pipe, with .7, .725, and .75 Betas) and looked at the 6-inch averaging pitot tube.
So to use less dp across the orifice you'd go to the larger orifice, or the averaging pitot tube inside of a pipe. In setting up my orifices, I wanted to have two flow ranges, with either 10" or 20" across the orifice plates, and a separate calibration curve for each. I didn't want to go any lower than 10" across the orifice at max flow for a given range, because I wanted to maintain some decent dp at the lower flow levels.
If you're looking at a 2" orifice as mentioned, then it would correspond approximately to the 3" .7 Beta plot in this chart, and you'd only get about 200 cfm across that orifice at with a 20" pressure drop.
I'd encourage you to spend a little more time with this sheet and change the 8-motor case to 9-motors if you have to, but save it to a difference file name, and go through and rename the 8-motor plots to 9-motors.
If you want to dig deeper, you can look at the tabs ""Orifice_Flow_Ranges" which show flow ranges starting out with the max orifice dp, and determining the lower range based on the accepted 4:1 turndown ratio for orifice plates. This can help you determine what ratio or orifice diameter you want to settle in on.
Hope this helps,
Terry T.