Alternative method to evaluate discharge coefficients. Part 1: feasibility study

The purpose of the current paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of a new technique whereby mass flowrates, and hence discharge coefficients can be estimated for a range of pipe discontinuities such as poppet valves, throttles, cylinder ports, and orifices. The requirement to directly measure the mass flowrates using a standard conventional steady flow apparatus has been eliminated. As such, flow characteristics were examined during the transient charging or inflow of air, from atmosphere, through a sharp-edged orifice into a partially evacuated cylinder of known volume. In particular, the current study focused on measuring the transient mass flowrates, pressures, and temperatures of air during an inflow test. Comparison between measured gas pressures and temperatures were made with predicted values from an adiabatic and non-adiabatic zero-dimensional inflow model. Mass flowrates calculated from measured cylinder gas pressure data, without heat transfer correction, were shown to be approximately 20 per cent lower, across the full pressure ratio range, than those measured using the mass flow meter. Iterative trial and error techniques were employed to determine the constant and time varying convective heat transfer coefficients needed to correlate the cumulative mass during inflow with the total mass of air, from initial and final cylinder conditions. Heating the cylinder wall to ensure isothermal conditions resulted in an improved correlation between the measured and estimated mass flowrates.