Flow straightener

[Dave K]

I'm trying to scheme up a flow straightener, and I'm sure there is some "rule of thumb" for the length of the straightener vs. the ID of the flow path, but I haven't found anything yet.

Any thoughts on this? if fluid type matters, I'm dealing with water.

Thanks,
Dave

-Dave

NX 5.0.6.3mp7

 

[rb1957]

my sense is that it'd depend on the amount of vorticity you're trying to straighten

 

[btrueblood]

Or what you are trying to straighten it for. ISO 5167 shows various types of flow straightening devices for use with square-edge orifice plates.

 

[Dave K]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that ISO.

-Dave

NX 5.0.6.3mp7

 

[IceMan30]

"Low-Speed Wind Tunnel Testing," by Barlow, Rae, and Pope should have a lot of useful information. Don't have the book in front of me, but I recall it has some good discussion on flow quality, straightening, etc.

The exact fluid shouldn't really matter - so long as you adjust methods for the fluid properties you're concerned with (water in your case). In general, you should be able to do a library/interweb search for low-speed, generally low-Reynolds # methods for flow quality control. Good luck!