Investigation of flow through the two-stage orifice

Abstract

In the field of engineering, understanding the flow characteristics of an orifice is key to accurately controlling pressure or flow; however, the transitional flow characteristics of the two-stage orifice has not been studied. The value of the discharge coefficient parameterizing the two-stage orifice flow equation is primarily based on that of the single classic orifice; however, this assumption leads to significant errors, because of the different numbers in the sudden contraction structure. Through theoretical derivation, the flow equations difference between the two-stage orifice and single classic orifice was compared and analyzed. Combing theoretical analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation and experimental measurement, the transitional flow characteristics of the two-stage orifice were investigated using mineral oil. The comparison results of the three parts are essentially consistent. In this paper, the discharge coefficient and the pressure drop over the two-stage orifice were primarily focused on Reynolds numbers between 900 and 1700. In comparison with the single orifice, the results show that under the same dimensions (d = 3 mm), the discharge coefficient of the two-stage orifice is greater, and the transitional flow state of the two-stage orifice is different from that of the single orifice. Additionally, the pressure drop of the two-stage orifice is less than that of the single orifice under the same volume flow rate. The prestage cylindrical hole slows the changing trend of the flow field parameters, and the second-stage orifice with smaller diameter is mainly responsible for the pressure loss. The current research provides important support for accurate pressure and flow control of the two-stage orifice, and the role of the prestage cylindrical hole can also be a good reference in the structure design of micro-orifices.

Keywords

• two-stage orifice
• discharge coefficient
• cfd
• transitional flow
• pressure drop