MRSSPOCK
Mechanical
- Aug 29, 2010
- 303
Hi. I'm probably in the wrong area, (pardon the pun), but I don't know where else to post this. The question is, is there a formula that will let me quickly calculate the central angle required to construct a sector within a circle, where the segment resulting from that sector, comprises an area of a specific percentage of the full circle? That probably sounds a bit confused so I will try again. Imagine I have a circle of a known area, e.g. 100mm^2 Imagine this circle represents the bore of a pipe. The pipe has a guillotine type plate to constrict flow. Imagine I want the guillotine to rise a certain amount, thereby providing a flow area of 20mm^2. Is there a way I can relate this 20mm^2 area to the angle such a segment would create, if the ends of the chord were connected by lines to the circle centre? The description given is just as a means to better explain the question, rather than a real example, in case someone starts quoting information related to flow. That's not really the issue at all. It's only a mathematical exercise, that's all. Is there a way to do this other that iteration? Thanks