Solving Hydraulic & Pneumatic Problems in HNC Course

[braceman]

Doing a HNC course and my current module is hydraulics and pneumatics. Never done this before so not sure if my thinking is correct for this question. The handouts are a bit vague in places and I can't find anything relevant on the net.

1. Homework Statement

What problems may occur if a pneumatic pipe is specified 1. Larger 2. Smaller. than the optimum value.

Homework Equations

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none

The Attempt at a Solution

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My notes go a bit into detail about what happens if the pipe is smaller - increased resistance to flow resulting in pressure drops which result in increased operation costs. The only thing stated for larger pipes is 'increased cost of installation'. I would have thought there was more than this ie, - to get the correct pressure/flow in the line, we'd have to increase the compressor output to compensate, so surely this would result in premature failure of the unit and cost of repair...or something like that.

Any more ideas? Doesn't have to be complicated or involve calculations (as no stats are given). I've spent a while searching for sites with details and there's some with info on pipes sized too small, but none for pipes sized too big .

Any help/pointers would be appreciated.

 

[haruspex]

to get the correct pressure/flow in the line, we'd have to increase the compressor output to compensate

As I understand the question, the pipe is merely a conduit between two other parts of the flow. Increasing the pipe width does not change the portions beyond it.
An analogy would be using a fat wire in an electrical circuit. It reduces the resistance at the expense of more copper, but that is all.