Pressure Drop Orifice Design

Overview

Flowserve is a fluid motion control company whose mission is to solve the biggest flow- control challenges through their unmatched engineering, project management, and service expertise. They solve these challenges by providing creative solutions that reduce expenses, minimize risk, and maximize performance. In order to develop the most successful products, they must have the proper testing instrumentation to ensure their models are working efficiently. One of the challenges that are commonly faced is a pressure build-up in the flow of water across a pipe. Currently, Flowserve uses a series of metal plates with holes in them to overcome this issue. These metal plates are also known as orifices. The problem with this system is that metal plates need to be manufactured and machined, taking away valuable time and money from the company.

Objectives

Our team has been tasked with the design and manufacturing of a 3D printable orifice cube design using additive manufacturing. The goal of this design is to be 3D printable, fit within a 2x2x2 inch volume, and drop the pressure of flow over a pipe by at least 20%

Approach

– Engage in weekly calls with our sponsor to receive feedback and gather project specifications

– Create test rig to test our prototypes

– Gather analysis and hand calculations from basic fluid laws

– Create CAD models

– 3D print 5 prototypes

– Assemble prototypes in test rig

– Analyse CAD models in Solidworks CFD simulation

– Determine final design based on the model that provided the 20% pressure drop

Outcomes

– Flowserve will not need to machine an orifice cube, which will allow them to implement more complex designs through additive manufacturing

– 3D printing also reduces the time and amount of wasted material that usually accompanies machining processes

– Our final design will reduce the pressure of flow across a pipe by at least 20%

– Flowserve will be able to scale this design to meet their needs for size and print it in their desired material.