Airvate Blog

  Introduction A damper is a device that adjusts the volume of airflow passing through the outlet, inlet or duct. By proper adjustment of all dampers in a system, a desired distribution of airflows in all the branches can be obtained, while minimizing the total airflow of the system to save energy— this is also termed air balancing. The most common dampers used in industrial ventilation and dust collection systems to balance airflows are slide gate dampers (The slide gate, also called “blast gate or cut-off” damper). In a slide gate damper (see Figure 1 of a straight flat slide gate damper), the slide is inserted perpendicular to the flow. Figure 1 A sample of straight flat slide gate damper As the gate is sliding into the duct, it will add resistance to the airflow and consequently reduce the volume of airflow, while increasing airflows in all other branches. Withdrawing the gate has the reverse effect on that branch and all the others in a system. Interaction between a fan ...

  Introduction The performances of all the hoods in the whole system normally decide the success of industrial ventilation and dust collection systems from the point of a system owner’s view. The appropriate hood design and its needed airflow rate require the application of good ventilation practice, mastery of the technical knowledge and the ability and patience to do the mathematical calculations. When more than one hood is connected to one ventilation system, the design engineer has to assure that each hood can and will receive the volume of airflow equal or above its designed value and the whole system operates with the minimum possible airflow rate to save energy. This task is termed air balancing of the system or duct balancing. Unbalanced systems cause problems On the contrary, examine the case where one or more hoods are unable to receive desired volume of airflow from an unbalanced ventilation system. It is not uncommon that many hoods are receiving airflow volumes...

Introductory Air balancing, trouble-shooting, and system evaluation in dust collection and industrial ventilation systems all require accurate measurements of air flowrates. Normally, the Pitot tube and magnehelic gauge (or manometer) are used to measure the velocity pressure and static pressure inside of a duct (round or rectangular), and then the air flowrates are calculated based on the measured values. This article talks about 5 kinds of uncertainties that always happen in field measurements using Pitot tube, the estimated maximum errors with some of them, and how to avoid some uncertainties with recommendations from manuals and standards ( ISO 3966 and NF X 10-113).   Uncertainties, maximum errors, and how to avoid some of them In addition to the inherent errors from Pitot tube and gauges themselves (calibration, resolution, drift, etc., sometimes with the correction factor of Pitot tube involved), there are other errors we have to...