Back Pressure Ratio and the Transonic Resonance Mechanism of Low Unchoking in Critical Flow Venturis

Published

September 28, 2016

Author(s)

John D. Wright, Keith A. Gillis, Aaron Johnson, Ida I. Shinder

Abstract

Reliable Critical Flow Venturi (CFV) operation requires sonic velocity at the throat of the device. The maximum ratio of exit pressure to inlet pressure that ensures this sonic velocity is referred to as the maximum back pressure ratio (MBPR). Being able to accurately predict the MBPR for a specific CFV as well as design a CFV to have a high MBPR allows diverse application and confidence in CFV flow measurements. At Reynolds numbers based on throat diameter below 50000, CFVs can display low unchoking and the standard equation over-reports the flow by 1 % or more. We show that MBPR for a particular, 0.8 mm throat diameter CFV using dry air, argon, helium, and sulfur hexafluoride is well correlated by the "fully expanded jet Mach number". Sound detected by microphones placed up and downstream from a CFV show high correlation between low unchoking and the presence of powerful transonic resonances (oscillations at audio frequencies in pressure and the position of a lambda shock in the CFV diffuser) described by Zaman et al. We propose a mechanism in which pressure fluctuations from the transonic tones lead to intermittent unchoking of the CFV throat. This paper also presents unchoking test results from 270 unchoking tests on 79 CFVs with a wide range of throat diameters, Reynolds numbers, diffuser lengths, half angles, and gases. Correlations for avoiding low unchoking and predicting MBPR for broader application are presented that incorporate the necessary effects due to Re, diffuser length, diffuser area ratio, and specific heat ratio. We advocate inclusion of these correlations in documentary standards.

Proceedings Title

FLOMEKO 2016

Conference Dates

September 26-29, 2016

Conference Location

Sydney, AU

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

critical flow venturi, low unchoking, premature unchoking, transonic resonance, conical diffuser

Citation

Wright, J. , Gillis, K. , Johnson, A. and Shinder, I. (2016), Back Pressure Ratio and the Transonic Resonance Mechanism of Low Unchoking in Critical Flow Venturis, FLOMEKO 2016, Sydney, AU, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921668 (Accessed April 19, 2024)