Experimental Determination of the Flow Coefficient for a Constrictor Nozzle with a Critical Outflow of Gas

Abstract

Reduction of energy expenditures required for various technological processes is a pressing issue in today’s economy. One of the ways to solve this issue in regard to liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage is the recovery of its vapours from LNG tanks using an ejector system. In that respect, studies on the outflow of the real gas through the nozzle, the main element of the ejector, and identifying differences from the ideal gas outflow, are of high relevance. Particularly, this concerns the determination of the discharge coefficient µ as the ratio of the actual flowrate to the ideal one, taking into account the energy losses at gas outflow through the nozzle. The discharge coefficient values determined to date for various nozzle geometries are, as a rule, evaluated empirically and contradictory in some cases. The authors suggest determining the discharge coefficient by means of an experiment. This paper includes µ values determined using this method for the critical outflow of air to atmosphere through constrictor nozzles with different outlet diameters (0.003 m; 0.004 m; 0.005 m) in the pressure range at the nozzle inlet of 0.5–0.9 MPa. The obtained results may be used for the design of an ejector system for the recovery of the boil-off gas from LNG tanks, as well as in other fields of industry, for the design of technical and experimental devices with nozzles for various applications.