Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations KootK on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Calculating flow through (heating water) coil given only pressure drop and coil measurements

Mark_B

Mechanical
Jan 21, 2024
14
I have a Titus DESV-06 with a single-row heating water coil and would like to be able to calculate flow rate in real time using information supplied by two Dwyer pressure transducers (one at inlet, one at outlet). I was not able to locate a manufacturer table. I will attempt to get the information from Titus, and remain hopeful someone here can supply it, but in the mean time would like to learn about the calculation.

I was reading through a thread here where I came across a specific method of calculation posted by user 25362:

"Professor Lydersen (Fluid flow and heat transfer-Wiley) states that you may use the usual friction drop formula with its [±]10-15% accuracy. He says that the friction factors can be obtained from Srinivasan, Nandapurkar and Holland: Friction factors for coils, Trans. Instn. Chem. Engrs., 48, T156-T161 (1970)."


This seems to be for a different type of coil, and not to apply to my Titus VAV coil, which I believe is single inlet but not helical. Is there a method of mathematical calculation for mine? Or do I need to cough up $500 for a flow meter, or fill a bunch of marked buckets at different rates and take notes?
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

The best way, of course, is to get real flow data on your installation (coil, pipe, and fittings - entire system). Then, provide a calculation methodology or a Look-up table or something.

Crane TP410 has a calculation method for coils too. Coils come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. You'll have to look at TP410 and see if it's applicable to your coils.
 
Last edited:
Or surf over to the manufacturer's website and look for data. Like this:


which shows tables of flow vs. pressure drop for various sizes of coils.

That was found at the page for your Titus DESV-06, under the "Performance" tab, where it lists "ESV Hot Water Coil Data":
 
Or surf over to the manufacturer's website and look for data. Like this:


which shows tables of flow vs. pressure drop for various sizes of coils.

That was found at the page for your Titus DESV-06, under the "Performance" tab, where it lists "ESV Hot Water Coil Data":
Doh! I looked right at it and didn't catch that. Thank you.

I am still interested in learning if there is some mathematical/geometrical method for the sake of learning. Will look into the Crane TP410 referenced above.
 

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor