© – Copyrights By Ms.Meghana Upadhyay – General Manager – Filter Concept Private Limited
In fluid dynamics, volumetric flow rate is the volume of fluid which passes through per unit time. Usually it is represented as symbol “Q”
Volumetric flow rate can also define as
Q = v.A
Where
v = Flow Velocity
A = Cross section area
Normally in industrial application it is considered that flow is passing through a pipe. Here fluid could be air, gas or liquid.
For flow rates are normally measured in following units
→ m3 / hr or m3 / min or m3 / sec
→ liters/ hr
→ cu.feet/min
→ sm3 /hr or nm3 /hr or Am3 / hr
→ SCFM (Standard cubic feet per min)
→ MMSCFD (Metric Million standard cubic feet per day)
In Filtration, flow rates plays an important role to determine capacity of any equipment, along with other important parameters like temperature, pressure, suspended solid load, velocity,etc
Filtration flow rate are determined based on air to cloth or gas to cloth ratio, or flux of filter element or filter media.While designing an adequate filtration system one has to be careful for selection of filter media or filter element. Each filter media has it’s own air permeability or flux.
Based on operating parameters, filtration area required to be calculated to achieve desired flow rate through filter media. This filtration area can be distributed either in form of one element or multiple elements and it can also be distributed as wrap round or pleated configuration of element, depending upon process requirement.
Secondly, inlet & outlet connection of filter apparatus has to be correctly designed to meet flow requirement, based on velocity of fluid passing through. It is also advisable to ensure that summation of cross sectional area of all elements within filtration apparatus /filtration system has to be bigger than C.S. area of inlet pipe to ensure minimum pressure drop across filtration system. It is advisable to cross check pressure drop calculation against allowable pressure drop across system. While selecting no of elements for a filtration appertains.
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