MALAYAN COLLEGES LAGUNA

ARTICLE CRITIQUE REPORT FOR THE COURSE

CHE131 A01
MOMENTUM TRANSFER

SUBMITTED BY:

DE GUZMAN, ARIELLE FRANCES E.

2011107116
CHE - 3

NOVEMBER 30, 2015

Gas Flow Calculations: Dont Choke

The journal is a publication of Chemical Week Associates. The article was published on
January 2000 by Trey Walters , P.E. He is the President and Director of Software Development
for Applied Flow Technology (AFT, 400 W. Hwy 24, Suite 201, P.O. Box 6358, Woodland Park,
CO 80866-6358; Phone: 719-686-1000; Fax: 719-686-1001; E-mail: treywalters@aft.com). He
is the founder of the company, also a developer of Microsoft-Windows-based pipe-flowsimulation software, in 1993. Previously, he was a senior engineer in cryogenic rocket design for
General Dynamics, and a research engineer in steam-equipment design for Babcock & Wilcox.
Trey Walters holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of
California at Santa Barbara, and is a registered engineer in California.
This article is about reviewing practical principles and presenting some key equations
conducting gas flow and evaluate several assumptions and rules of thumb that engineers
sometimes apply in order to simplify gas-flow analysis and calculations. The meaning of rules of
thumb is a broadly accurate guide or principle, based on experience or practice rather than
theory. The purpose of this article is to offer some guidelines for evaluating the importance of
compressibility effects in a given case. Accurately calculating compressible flow in pipe systems,
especially in branching networks is a formidable task. Engineers often apply rules of thumb to a
given situation that involves gas flow, to decide whether the use of (simpler) incompressibleflow calculations can be proven.

From my point of view, this article is a review for engineers that has a broad and accurate
guide or principle, that is based on experience. It is also educational because it sets out the
equations needed for incompressible and compressible flow. It gives the readers a much more

detailed information for us to have an easy learning. The central theme of the article is that the
appropriate term for gas flow is compressible flow. But such flow can be categorized as
incompressible flow because it depends on the amount of the change in pressure the gas
undergoes, also on other conditions. The supporting concepts or themes it has other simplified
compressible flow methods, variety of simplified gas-flow equations often based on assuming
the flow is isothermal. Gas-flow designs involves two concepts that are usually no importance
with incompressible flow are stagnation conditions and sonic choking.
The authors purpose is to offer guidelines for evaluating the importance of
compressibility effects in a given case. The author mentioned that most gas flows are not
isothermal. In other cases, it is not applicable to know how much error is introduced by the
assumption of temperature to be constant. Also, simplified equations are not applicable for sonicchoking issues. Key ideas defined in the article are stagnation conditions, sonic choking, singlepipe adiabatic flow, single-pipe isothermal flow, general single-pipe equations, effect of heat
transfer and network complications. The author started with the discussion of compressible and
incompressible equations next with the two conditions, stagnation condition and sonic choking,
then he discussed the single-pipe adiabatic flow and single-pipe isothermal flow then general
single-pipe equations. He also acknowledged the simplification errors, if it is big or small. He
also summarized the methods for simplified compressible flow. He cited First Law of
Thermodynamics, Energy balance, Mach number, equation of state. He also used the program,
Compressible Flow Estimator(CFE), which is developed by the author. To a pipe network, the
number of variables gradually increases and the difficulty in assessing the potential error likewise increases.
Incompressible flow methods are perfectly suitable if the engineer is designing a nearatmospheric-pressure ventilation system, with pressure drops measured in inches of water. Also
extensive iteration is required for other multiple unknowns. For design and specification of a
pressure-relief system, it is expected to have high velocities, compressible-flow methods will
clearly be required. It is also stated in the article that it is difficult to assess the error that will
result from using incompressible methods. The author stated that it is difficult to extend the
equations to pipe networks. But the simplified compressible-flow equations can be an
improvement over assuming incompressible flow, but numerous drawbacks limit their
usefulness.

The article is fluent and easy to read, it includes many information about gas flows. It is
important to know that there are alternative ways if incompressible introduces error even though
it simplifies math. The one idea that impressed me is that they also developed a more widely
applicable tool for evaluating error introduced by assuming incompressible flow.

To raise the pressure and density, compressors, blowers and fans are the machines. The
changes in properties in the gas flow system limits the applicability of incompressible methods.
The methods discussed in this article will be of use to the engineers to evaluate endpoint sonic
choking, though restriction and expansion choking are somewhat more complicated. Potential
cost savings should be considered by the engineer if the new design requires a lot of pipe. This
article provides a basis for critiquing a number of rules of thumb when dealing with gas flow.
Extra care should be taken when interpreting the meaning of incompressible-flow methods
applied to gas pipe networks.