Venturi Tube Experiment

Introduction

The Venturi tube is an instrument for measuring accurate flow of rate of fluids in pipes, but could also serve as a mean of natural cooling. The design is based on Bernoulli’s Principle of Pressure and Flow Rate. In this experiment, air flows faster on lower pressure, whereas air flows slower under higher pressure. Fluids are another application for the Venturi tube instrument. Should there be an air flow in the center of the low pressure point, normal pressure seeps in and flow with the rest of the air flow.

Methodology

Mark collaborated with Guadalupe, Adolfo, and Alan for ideas and initial concepts. The final design was inspired by the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Mark started sketching ideas before moving the idea forward to AutoCAD, before converting to a compatible file for CorelDRAW. The Corel file was used to cut out the pieces through a laser cutter. The experiment was then conducted using a hair dryer on one end of the tube for the air to flow through. As the air flows to the other end of the tube, a vacuum-like suction appears at the bottom to determine if our experiment was a success.

Objective

In this experiment, the objective was to create an alternative structure of the Venturi tube model to provide a structure natural ventilation through highand low-pressure. We were also assigned into groups of 4 to make the Venturi tube. Our group took Bernoulli’s Principles into consideration. To determine a successful alternative Venturi tube design, should the air flow be suctioned and blown to the other end per Bernoulli’s Principle?

Materials: Cardboard, laser cutter, and hot glue gun

Scale: 1/2” = 1’-0”

Preliminary Sketches

Initial Concepts and Observations

The preliminary sketches went through a progression of ideas before settling on the first model. The first model’s dimensions consists of a bottom length of 27 inches with half an inch suction hole diameter, 34.5 inches for the top length, a 2 inch width, and the height at 6.25 inches. The model was tested and concluded that the tube didn’t have enough space to create a vacuum-like suction due to a small suction diameter.

Final Concept Observations

The first model’s was upscaled to a bottom length of 44 inches with an inch suction hole diameter, 94.5 inches for the top length, a new width of 3 inches, and the height at 6.25 inches. The final was able to perform experiment successfully and demonstrate Bernoulli’s Principle.

Conclusion

Our first Venturi tube model did not work as the model and air flow was too small to demonstrate Bernoulli’s Prinicple. However, our second model was was successful at demonstrating the high- and low-pressure suction effect. This could provide for natural cooling in a house, much-like the evaporative cooling towers.