Calculating required pressure to maintain flowrate

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the pressure required to pump oil through a small hole with a diameter of 1mm to maintain a flow rate of 0.5L/min. The conversation touches on concepts related to fluid dynamics, particularly the effects of viscosity and flow assumptions, and considers both theoretical and practical implications of such a scenario.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant seeks a basic understanding of the pressure needed to maintain a specific flow rate of oil through a small orifice, suggesting that significant pressure may be required due to the oil's viscosity.
  • Another participant suggests treating the scenario as a restriction orifice problem, noting that factors such as discharge coefficients, viscosity, and Reynolds number will influence the calculations.
  • A different participant emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between viscous and inviscid flow, indicating that viscosity will affect shear forces at the wall and that the Reynolds number will play a crucial role in determining flow behavior.
  • One participant expresses doubt about the feasibility of simple hand calculations for viscous flow, suggesting that a more complex analysis may be necessary.
  • Another participant proposes using Bernoulli's principle for a rough calculation, acknowledging that this approach would ignore losses but could provide a general idea of the pressure requirements.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the applicability of inviscid flow assumptions and the complexity of calculations required for viscous flow. There is no consensus on the best approach to determine the required pressure, and the discussion remains unresolved regarding the specifics of the calculations.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on various factors such as viscosity, flow conditions, and the assumptions made regarding flow type (viscous vs. inviscid). The discussion highlights the complexity of accurately modeling the flow through a small orifice.

bugatti79
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Folks,

I seek just a very rudimentary idea of what pressure is required to pump oil through a very small hole of 1mm diameter to maintain a flow rate of 0.5L/min. See attached.

I would imagine that under gravity that the flow rate would be very low because of the viscosity of the oil thus to maintain a this flow rate significant pressure would be required to push it through. Let's assume the oil container bore is 10mm diameter.

Any thoughts?

Regards
 

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Can treat it like a restriction orifice. It will consider the discharge coefficients depending on thickness, viscosity, temperatures, diameters, reynolds #, etc. to give more accurate #'s

The head pressure required might make your container quite high?
 
darkside00 said:
Can treat it like a restriction orifice. It will consider the discharge coefficients depending on thickness, viscosity, temperatures, diameters, reynolds #, etc. to give more accurate #'s

The head pressure required might make your container quite high?

Well I have come across this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orifice_plate#Incompressible_flow_through_an_orifice

but it is only for inviscid flow, I am interested in viscous flow like oil. I guess a simple hand calculation is not possible...?
Basically I would like to argue the point that a very large pressure pump would be required to pump oil through a 1mm diameter at a rateof 500ml/min...
 
I think you're confusing what is involved in the viscous and invicsous flow assumptions. Any value of viscocity is going to make a contribution to the shear forces at the wall due to viscosity of the fluid. Making the assumption of inviscid flow depends on what area of the flow you are interested in. If you're after a value inside the boundary layer, close to the wall, then you might need equations to describe viscid flow. Otherwise their contributions to the flow somewhere else is usually negligible in problems like this one.

It really depends on the Reynolds number of the flow. For example, Air at high speeds is going to have more of an effect on the flow than oil at low speeds, even though oil has a much higher value than air.
 
bugatti79 said:
Folks,

I seek just a very rudimentary idea of what pressure is required to pump oil through a very small hole of 1mm diameter to maintain a flow rate of 0.5L/min. See attached.

I would imagine that under gravity that the flow rate would be very low because of the viscosity of the oil thus to maintain a this flow rate significant pressure would be required to push it through. Let's assume the oil container bore is 10mm diameter.

Any thoughts?

Regards

Vadar2012 said:
I think you're confusing what is involved in the viscous and invicsous flow assumptions. Any value of viscocity is going to make a contribution to the shear forces at the wall due to viscosity of the fluid. Making the assumption of inviscid flow depends on what area of the flow you are interested in. If you're after a value inside the boundary layer, close to the wall, then you might need equations to describe viscid flow. Otherwise their contributions to the flow somewhere else is usually negligible in problems like this one.

It really depends on the Reynolds number of the flow. For example, Air at high speeds is going to have more of an effect on the flow than oil at low speeds, even though oil has a much higher value than air.

Well I would be interested in low speeds,so it looks like a simple hand calculation is not possible?
 
For a simple/rough and incompressible calculation using bernoullis principle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli's_principle

E.g. (v1^2)/2 + g*z1 + P1/p = (v2^2)/2 + g*z2 + P2/p

This obviously ignores the losses but gives an idea. Also, assuming your pouring to atmosphere and using conservation of energy to get the initial velocity (pVA)in=(pVA)out
 

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