March 27

Pneumatic Conveying

2012
Ventilation Systems

Ventilation systems are used to remove unwanted vapors or dust particles form a room and exhaust them to the atmosphere. When using branching system it is important to make sure that the pressure drop in each of the branches are equal, so that the system does not naturally self equilibrate, whereby reducing the necessary flow rate. This lab analyzes an air distribution system.

Introduction Air conditioning unit are used to cool a room to a desired temperature during hot days. Heating systems do just the opposite of air conditioning systems, as they provide heat to a room during a cool day. Ventilation systems are used to remove unwanted vapors or dust particles form a room and exhaust them to the atmosphere. What do all these systems have in common? Well, they all use ducts to achieve the desired result. If several rooms in a home were to be cooled using an air conditioning system, it would be impractical to say that each room have its own air conditioning system, this also implies to heating or venting rooms. For reason due to cost and space, designing an air distribution system using branching duct form the main line is important. When using branching system it is important to make sure that the pressure drop in each of the branches are equal so that the system does not naturally self equilibrate, whereby reducing the necessary flow rate. In this lab, an air distribution system was analyzed and the required diameters of the duct and the operating point of the fan were determined. Objective The objective of this lab is to determine the diameter, velocity pressure, velocity, and static pressure drop through each section of the ducts. Methods and Material The air distribution system that was analyzed is shown (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Air distribution system. The air distribution system (Figure 1) needs to have a flow rate of 7000, 6000, and 5000 cubic feet per minute through ducts 1, 2, and 4 respectively and the cyclone has a pressure drop of 6 in wg. The lengths of the ducts are given in table 1. Table 1: Duct lengths Duct Length(ft) 1 to 3 175 2 to 3 150 3 to 5 80 4 to 5 190 5 to 6 50 7 to 8 70

All of the ducts in this design were of circular cross section and made with light weight riveted steel (=0.003ft). The minimum conveying velocity is 4200 fpm. All of the hoods have a 20D equivalent length. And the mixing losses in the branch were equal to one velocity pressure and in the main it is equal to half the velocity pressure. The pressure drop in all the branches must be equivalent, to start the analysis the most remote branch was used, branch 1-3. Using the minimum conveying velocity the diameter of the duct was established by using the flow rate equation, Q=VA, solving for the area, A, gave the diameter. This diameter was rounded so the velocity was higher than the minimum conveying velocity. After back calculation the velocity was found to be 4441 fpm. Now that the velocity was known the Reynolds number was determined by using the following equation, which was given by Principle of Process engineering text book: (1) Where, V = Velocity (fps) D = Diameter of duct (ft) (ft/s) Using the ratio of relative roughness to diameter, /D, and the Reynolds number, the friction factor is found using the Moody charts. The pressure drop in duct 1-3 was determined by equation 3, and the velocity pressure was given by equation 2 which are given by Principle of Process engineering text book: (2) (Only for standard air conditions) (3) (3) Where, f= Friction factor (unit less) L= Length of duct (ft) D=Diameter of pipe (ft) VP=Velocity pressure (in wg)

Now that the losses in duct 1-3 were known the pressure drop in section 2-3 must be equal to 1-3. To determine the diameter of section 2-3 that gave a equivalent pressure drop an arbitrary diameter of 15 inches was guessed and the total pressure losses was calculated using the flow rate equation, Q=VA, solving for the velocity and then using equations 1- 3 to find the total pressure loss. The same procedure was done for different pipe diameter until a close match was found. Calculation for section 3-5 were done using the minimum conveying velocity of 4200fpm and solving for the area in the flow rate equation, Q=VA, the diameter was found. However the diameter was rounded down so that it would be close to the minimum conveying velocity. Using the new diameter the new velocity was found using the

flow rate equation, and equations 1-3 were used again to find the total pressure loss in the section (the pressure loss due to the hood was zero). The pressure loss in section 1-3 and 2-3 did not match so the average of the two were taken and used as the new pressure loss, this was added to the pressure loss in section 3-5 to give the pressure loss form section 1-5. The diameter of section 4-5 was found by using the fact that the pressure drop in section 4-5 must equal section 1-5. In order to find the diameter in section 4-5 an arbitrary diameter was selected and then using the flow rate equation, Q=VA, and equation 1-3 the pressure drop was calculated. The diameter that gave the closest result to the pressure drop of section 1-5 was chosen as the pipe diameter to be used, and the pressure drops were averaged. The pressure loss in section 5-6 was established by using the criteria that the velocity in that section should be as close to the minimum conveying velocity. Using that criterion the diameter was found using the flow rate equation and the pressure loss was found using equations 1-3 (the hood and mixing pressure drops were zero for this section of pipe). The pressure drop in section 7-8 would be determined by using the same diameter pipe as in section 5-6 and by just adding the pressure drop due to the cyclone the pressure drop in section 7-8 was found. The pressure drops and velocity pressures are now known; the fan total pressure would be calculated. To do this calculation the total pressure (TP) at the inlet and outlet of the fan needed to be known first. This was done by taking the difference of the static pressure (SP) and the velocity pressure (VP) at the inlet and outlet of the fan. The static pressure at point 6, the inlet or suction side, was the average of the pressure drop at section 4-5 and 1-5 plus the pressure drop in section 5-6. The velocity pressure was the velocity pressure calculated in section 5-6. The static pressure at the outlet side was the pressure drop in section 7-8 and the velocity pressure was the same velocity pressure in section 7-8. The fan total pressure was found by taking the difference in the total pressure at the outlet side to the total pressure loss at the suction side. Results and Discussion Table 2: Result of Air distribution system analysis. Velocity Static Diameter Velocity Duct Pressure Pressure (inches) (fpm) (in wg) (in wg) 1 to 3 2 to 3 3 to 5 4 to 5 5 to 6 7 to 8 17.5 16 23.5 13 28 28 4441 4297.1 4315 5424.5 4209.5 4209.5 1.23 1.15 1.16 1.83 1.10 1.10 5.43 5.154 1.396 12.61 1.105 6.75

Table 1 shows the results of the analysis of the air distribution system. The required pipe sizes are also shown in table 1 as well as the velocities, velocity pressure and static pressure in each duct section. The total fan pressure that is needed is 17.14 in wg which translated to a 49 air horse power pump at a total operating flow rate of 18,000 cfm. Several different pipe diameters were analyzed when deciding the necessary pipe diameter. The pipe diameter that resulted in a lower pressure drop was used because it was necessary to provide the flow rate at each of the respective branches. These calculations are shown in Appendix A.

Summary When a branching system is used it is important to make sure that the pressure drop in each of the branches is equal so that the system does not naturally equilibrate itself, whereby reducing the necessary flow rate. In this lab, such a system was analyzed. The required pipe diameter, velocity pressure, velocity, and static pressure drop through each section of the ducts were found. The duct diameter were 17.5 inches from duct 1 to 3, 16 inches for duct 2 to 3, 23.5 inches for ducts 3 to 5, 13 inches for duct 4 to 5 and 28 inches for ducts 5 to 6 and 7 to 8. The calculated diameter would be sufficient to meet the required flow rate.

Appendix A

Reference 1. S.M Henderson, R.L .Perry, J.H. Young. 1997. Principle of Process Engineering. 4th ed. St. Joseph, MI. ASAE.