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Calculate flow rate of air through a pressurized

hole
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I was wondering about this:

If there is a pressurized container, like a tank of compressed air at some pressure that is greater than the
ambient air pressure, and this tank of air has a hole in it, what is the velocity of the escaping air through the
hole? Is there a formula for this?

fluid-dynamics pressure aerodynamics air flow

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edited Aug 14 '14 at 21:01
asked Aug 14 '14 at 19:18

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 It has a strong dependency on the shape of the orifice. Check this out: Flow through an orifice – Mike DunlaveyAug 15
'14 at 1:45
 The answer is right. Intuitively, if you want to double the velocity of the escaping air, you need to quadruple the
pressure. The reason is that pressure (force) is momentum (of the air) per unit time, and if the velocity doubles,
you're doubling the momentum of each parcel of air, and you're doubling the number of parcels of air. – Mike
Dunlavey Aug 18 '14 at 15:11
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2 Answers
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If you neglect viscosity, Bernoulli's equation (just Navier-Stokes without frictional or stress terms) will get
you into the ballpark:

Pg+12ρgv2g=PaPg+12ρgvg2=Pa
Where the gg subscripts pertain to the gas and the aa subscript to the ambient. The gas
density ρg≡M/Vρg≡M/V is the ratio of the mass of gas (M) in the tank to the volume of the tank. If the tank is
a rigid container (like a propane tank) then the volume of the gas is constant and the pressure will vary with
the mass flow and the temperature. If you assume the tank remains at a constant ambient temperature, the
pressure will only vary with the mass flow rate (isothermal expansion) and you can obtain that from the ideal
gas law:
Pg=mMRTPg=mMRT
where mm is the molecular mass of the gas in question, TT the temperature, RR the gas constant, and MMthe
total mass of the gas remaining in the tank. This is a function of time because mass is leaving the tank. The
rate at which mass leaves is a function of the exit velocity (it depends on the volumetric flow rate, which is a
product of the exit orifice size and the exit velocity). So you can solve for M(vg)M(vg)and substitute in the
above equations and solve for vgvg self-consistently. Note this approach also ignores any pipes that might be
attached to the orifice. For that, you'd need to calculate the volumetric flow rate using Poiseuille's equation.
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edited Aug 14 '14 at 22:42
answered Aug 14 '14 at 22:36

user3814483
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I think the answer at 'Aug 14 '14 at 22:36' is generally good, but I disagree in that the process can be regarded
as isothermal.

For solving the problem at hand, the temperature inside the gas canister is required. This temperature will only
be constant if the heat flow (through condution and convection) is fast enough to negate the temperature drop
caused by the reduction of pressure in the vessel, and I believe this would not be a good assumption. I would
rather assume adiabatic expansion inside (but not outside) the canister. This would mean that the canister
becomes cold when it empties (I have used co2 powered bb-guns and seen ice forming on the co2 canister,
which supports my assumption).

Assuming adiabatic expansion makes the calculation a bit more complicated. You need to enter the pressure to
temperature relation

P(1−γ)Tγ=constantP(1−γ)Tγ=constant
into the ideal gas law

P=mMRTP=mMRT
to obtain the 'new' pressure as a function of initial temperature and pressure, and the 'new' gas mass in the
canister.

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answered Nov 7 '16 at 16:10

Tomas
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 Actually an isothermal assumption is reasonable in the case of velocity of a leak, if the the hole in the tank is small
and the tank isn't insulating so that it remains near ambient temperature throughout the time air is escaping. –
Anachronist May 17 '17 at 22:41

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