compressed air flows

[panelman]

Guys

We have a blower producing 4000 m3/hr of air at 0.3-4 bar which feeds 4 lanes of under water diffusers. Manifold pipe is 24” dia with 8” branches to individual lanes.

When the blower is down the plan is to isolate the 8 inch pipes from the manifold and feed air (1m3/min @ 7 bar) from a diesel road drill compressor into the 8 inch pipe via a ¾” hose and claw coupling.

Any thoughts, questions or warnings from those who know better than me would be welcome

 

[quark]

I don't think 1m³/min is at 7bar. It may be FAD. So, you will only have half capacity as stand by. 3/4" can be OK for 36 cfm. I would prefer metal reinforced hoses.

 

[vzeos]

panelman,
Based on the limited information you provide, I have a couple of observations. First, if you are trying to manifold a 24” pipe into 4 branches the branches should be 14” diameter to maintain the capacity of the 24” pipe. It would take about 18 - 8” pipes to equal the capacity of one 24” pipe. Secondly, you need to calculate the volume rate on a standard cubic meter basis taking into account all of the pressure drops. The pressure drops depend on the volume flow rate, the pipe diameter and the pipe length. You can expect the capacity of your compressor to be limited by the capacity of your ¾” hose with fittings.