Flow through an orifice

Introduction

A fluid passing though an orifice constriction will experience a drop in pressure across the
orifice. This change can be used to measure the flowrate of the fluid.

To calculate the flowrate of a fluid passing through an orifice plate, enter the parameters below.
(The default calculation involves air passing through a medium-sized orifice in a 4" pipe, with
answers rounded to 3 significant figures.)

Equations used in this Calculator

As long as the fluid speed is sufficiently subsonic (V < mach 0.3),
the incompressible Bernoulli's equation describes the flow reasonably well. Applying this
equation to a streamline traveling down the axis of the horizontal tube gives,

where location 1 is upstream of the orifice, and location 2 is slightly behind the orifice. It is
recommended that location 1 be positioned one pipe diameter upstream of the orifice, and
location 2 be positioned one-half pipe diameter downstream of the orifice. Since the pressure at 1
will be higher than the pressure at 2 (for flow moving from 1 to 2), the pressure difference as
defined will be a positive quantity.

From continuity, the velocities can be replaced by cross-sectional areas of the flow and the
volumetric flowrate Q,
Solving for the volumetric flowrate Q gives,

The above equation applies only to perfectly laminar, inviscid flows. For real flows (such as
water or air), viscosity and turbulence are present and act to convert kinetic flow energy into
heat. To account for this effect, a discharge coefficient Cd is introduced into the above equation
to marginally reduce the flowrate Q,

Since the actual flow profile at location 2 downstream of the orifice is quite complex, thereby
making the effective value of A2 uncertain, the following substitution introducing a flow
coefficient Cf is made,

where Ao is the area of the orifice. As a result, the volumetric flowrate Q for real flows is given
by the equation,

The flow coefficient Cf is found from experiments and is tabulated in reference books; it ranges
from 0.6 to 0.9 for most orifices. Since it depends on the orifice and pipe diameters (as well as
the Reynolds Number), one will often find Cf tabulated versus the ratio of orifice diameter to
inlet diameter, sometimes defined as b,

The mass flowrate can be found by multiplying Q with the fluid density,
 Flow through an orifice
There are several reasons you might want to install a restrictive device, or orifice in a piping
system.

 To create a false head for a centrifugal pump, allowing you to run the pump close to its BEP.
 To increase the line pressure.
 To decrease the flow through a line.
 To increase the fluid velocity in a line.

The equation for flow through an orifice is a simple one to understand. Only the units are
somewhat awkward.

Q = AV

Q = The flow in cubic feet per second (ft3/sec).A = The area of the orifice in square feet (ft2).

V = The velocity of the liquid in feet per second (ft/sec).

Experience shows that the actual flow is quite different than calculated because of the different
shapes of the various orifices. Look at the following diagrams and you will see some of these
popular shapes. Each has been assigned a “K” value.

We will enter that “K” value into our equation and the new equation becomes:

Q = AVK

To make the equation easier to handle we can express the velocity “V” as:

 g = 32.2 ft/sec2
 h = Head across the orifice. If the downstream side of the orifice is pressurized use the
differential head across the orifice.

If you do not know how to convert pressure to head, use this formula:

:
 It would also make sense to convert some of the terms in our equation to terms that are more
convenient to use. As an example:

 “Q” can be converted from cubic feet per second to gallons per minute:
o 1 ft3/sec = 448.8 gpm.
 “A” The area in square feet can be converted to square inches:
o 1 ft2 = 144 square inches

Putting all of this together gives us a new formula that looks like this:

Let’s plug in some numbers and

calculate a flow through a typical orifice.

Given:

 h = 20 feet
 A = 0.049 square inches
 K = 0.62

Q = 25 x 0.049 x 0.62 x 4.47 or

Q = 3.40 gallons per minute

If we want to solve for the orifice area:

If you are uncomfortable working with the orifice area in square inches you can use the diameter
instead. Use the following equation:

Inserting the 0.049 square inches we calculated from the prior formula we get

or 1/4 inch

We made our formula more user friendly by substituting some conversions and now we can
make our calculations in gallons per minute and square inches, but the formulas would be better
if we could measure the orifice diameter rather than the orifice area

I took you through this exercise to show you how the formulas we use in these papers are
derived. We will re-write the flow and orifice diameter formulas again and maybe this time they
will be simple enough for anybody to use. We will start with the flow formula and then fix the
orifice formula:

The formula for calculating the orifice diameter becomes:

 Let’s see if the formulas still work. Here are the numbers:

 d = .250 or 1/4 inch

 K = 0.620
 Q = 3.4 gallons per minute
 h = 20 feet

We will begin by solving fo

r flow (Q)

Well that worked, now let’s try for orifice size:

All of these above numbers were generated assuming that you were moving water through the
orifice. If you are making calculations for a liquid other than water you will have to factor in the
viscosity of that liquid compared to water.

We also made an assumption that the orifice diameter is not greater than 30% of the pipe
diameter. There is another formula we use for a less restrictive orifice.

Any time the ratio of the orifice diameter to the pipe diameter is greater than 30%

(0.30) you should modify the formula. The modifier (M) looks like this:

 d1 = orifice diameter
 d2 = pipe diameter

When you are using the modifier, the formulas look like this:
 Now we will see what happens when a 0.250 inch (1/4) orifice is put into a smaller cross section
0.500 inch (1/2) pipe, assuming the other numbers stay the same:

This means that you would have to multiply by 1.03 so the 3.46 gpm we got in the last
calculation would become 3.56 gpm.

How accurate are these predicted numbers? Anytime you make a calculation using flow as a part
of the equation, you will run into some variables that will affect your results:

 The roughness of the piping inside walls affects the friction loses.
 The piping material and allowable wall thickness tolerances.
 Solids buildup inside the piping. Calcium in water applications and coke in hot oil applications
are typical. Higher temperature usually hastens the solids buildup.