Technical Bulletin TBN023.

1/2001

FAN AND SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Airflow Systems An airflow system consists of a fan (or several fans) and of various elements through which the airflow can pass. These may be ducts, elbows, expanding or converging transistions, heating and cooling coils, screens and guards, dampers, louvers and shutters, nozzles, bag houses and other filters, or bubble pools. Each component will offer some resistance to airflow, and the fan has to develop sufficient static pressure to overcome all these resistances. The total of all these resistances is called the system resistance or the resistance pressure. The static pressure produced by the fan has to be equal to the resistance pressure. An airflow system also will have a characteristic curve of resistance pressure versus air volume. It will show the different static pressures that will be required to force certain air volumes through this specific system. This curve is called the system characteristic. A fan curve, which showed a typical static pressure versus air volume curve. It showed the different static pressures a specific fan will produced when choked down to certain air volumes. This curve can be called the fan characteristic. If we will plot the fan characteristic and the system characteristic on the same sheet of graph paper, usually there will be a point of intersection of the two curves. This point of intersection will be the only point that will satisfy both the fan characteristic and system characteristic. It therefore will be the point of operation. Airflow Through a Pool of Stationary Liquid Normally, the system resistance (i.e. the static pressure needed) will increase with the velocity and therefore with the volume of the air passing through the system. An exception is a pool of stationary liquid through which air or a gas is forced in bubbles, as in the aeration of sewage or of molten iron. Here the system resistance will be constant, regardless of the volume, because it is simply the hydrostatic pressure presented by the liquid. This hydrostatic pressure will be proportional to the depth of the pool and to the specific gravity of the liquid (so it will be very high for molten iron). However, the hydrostatic pressure obviously will not depend on the air volume forced through the liquid. (The air volume will depend only on the amount of air made avail-able by the fan.) No air can bubble through if the maximum pressure produced by the fan is smaller than this hydrostatic pressure. This is shown in Fig. 1. Note that the system characteristic is a straight horizontal line. However, if the pressure produced by the fan is adequate, the bubbles will flow. From here on, no extra pressure (only more fan capacity) is needed to force more air

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Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001 through the liquid. Fig.2 shows the fan characteristic and the system characteristic for this case. The constant K determines the height of the horizontal line above the air volume. Apart from this exception case, the static pressure needed to blow or draw air through an airflow system is not constant, but it increases with the air volume or velocity. The question now is: how fast will it increase? The answer is: it depends on the air velocity and on the resulting type of airflow (laminar or turbulent).

Fig. 1 Fan characteristic and system characteristic for a bubble pool with no point of intersection. No bubbles can pass through the liquid.

Airflow Through Filter Bags The total area of filter bags in a bag house is made large in order to keep the flow resistance low, even when the bags start to get plugged up by the dust. As a result of the large area, the velocity of the air passing through the fabric is very low, about 0.015 to 0.020 m/s, and the corresponding Reynolds number Re is small. For standard air, we can calculate the Reynolds number from the following equation:
Re = VD

Fig. 2 Fan characteristic and system characteristic for a bubble pool with a point of intersection. Gas bubbles will pass through the liquid.

where = gas density, in kg/m3 V = average air velocity, m/s D = Diameter of duct, m = Air viscosity, Ns/m2 For standard air, = 1.22 kg/m3, =1.82x10-5 Ns/m2 For duct diameter, 1ft = 0.305m
(1.22)(0.015)(0.305) 1.82x10 5 Re = 307 Re =

The system characteristic is again a straight horizontal line, indicating that the static pressure needed to force bubbles through the liquid is constant, regardless of the air velocity, from 0 cms to the point of operation and beyond. The formula for this system characteristic is SP = K (Q )0 = K

This is far below the 2000 value where

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Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001 turbulent airflow might start. This means that the airflow through the filter bags is laminar. The system characteristic for laminar airflow can be calculated from the formula
SP = K x Q

This is a straight, inclined line through the origin, as shown in Fig. 3. The constant K determines the steepness of the straight line: K= tan. As the bags get plug up by dust, the filter efficiency will improve and the system resistance and the steepness angle will increase, but it will still be a straight line.

The static pressure needed to overcome the resistance of the system depends on the height of the bin and on the type of grain. It can be from 750 - 5000 Pa. For the lower pressures, vaneaxial fans can be used, but for the higher pressures, centrifugal fans are needed. However, whatever the static pressure, the velocity of the air passing through the grain is about 0.1 m/s, approxi-mately six times as large as the 0.015 to 0.020 m/s through filter bags. The corresponding Reynolds number, then, is about 2100, the beginning of slightly turbulent airflow, and the formula for the system characteristic is
SP = K (Q )1.5

This is a curve through the origin, as shown in Fig 4. The constant K determines the steepness of the curve. For higher grain bins and for greater grain compaction (such as wheat), the curve gets steeper.

Fig. 3 Fan characteristic and system characteristic for laminar airflow, such as air passing through filter bags.

Airflow Through a Grain Bin Various grains, such as corn, rice, soy beans, barley and wheat, have to be dried after harvesting to prevent spoilage of the grain. For this purpose, they are stored in cylindrical grain bins that can be from 4 - 25m high. Vaneaxial fans or centrifugal fans are used to force heated air through the grain bin.

Fig. 4 Fan characteristic and system characteristic for slightly turbulent airflow, such as air passing through grain bins.

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Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001 Airflow Through a Ventilating System In a conventional ventilating system, such as used in buildings, both the air velocities and the Reynolds number are considerably larger than in bag houses or grain bins. (Only in the filter section are they still low.) For example, a 710-mm vaneaxial fan delivered 4.0 m3/s against static pressure of 600 Pa. The 715mm i.d. duct has an area of 0.4015 m2; thus the air velocity will be V = 4.0/0.4015 =9.96 m/s, and the velocity pressure will be VP= (9.96/1.3)2 =59Pa. Lets assume that our system will consist of this 715mm i.d. duct plus some other equip-ment, resulting in a total resistance pressure of 600 Pa. Our Reynolds number will be Re = 477,370. Since this Reynolds number is far above 2000, this is definitely turbulent airflow, as is normal in ventilating systems. The formula for the system characteristic now is
SP = K (Q )2

Fig. 4 Fan characteristic and System characteristic for turbulent airflow prevailing in ventilating systems.

It may be interesting to note that the basic equation of the friction loss for a straight, round duct with constant diameter and smooth walls:
L VP D

= 0.0195

This is a parabola through the origin, as shown in Fig. 5. If one point of the system characteristic is known, the other points can be calculated, and the parabola can be plotted.

is proportional to (Q)2 , indicates the same thing for a ventilating system. Table 1 summarizes the four different airflow systems.

Table 1 - Comparison of Flow Conditions for Four Airflow System Type of Type of Air velocity Reynolds system airflow (m/s) number Bubbling pool Filter bags Laminar 0.015 307 Grain bins Slightly turbulent 0.100 2100 Ventilating system Turbulent 9.960 477000

Formula for system characteristic SP = K (Q)0 SP = K (Q) SP = K (Q)1.5 SP = K (Q)2

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