How to avoid vortex?

[dkf]

What would be a practical way to avoid vortex formation at oil tank discharge other than restricting / decreasing discharge flow rate? This is anoperational problem we are facing when purging water ( 8 in purge pipe )from crude oil tanks.
Thank for help

 

[TD2K]

Vortex breakers are commonly used to prevent vortexes from forming. They are typically made out of two crossed sections of plate with the height equal to about 1.5 x the ID of the drain line. If you do a search on this site for vortex, there have been a couple of references posted to help you determining if vortex formation is an issue though if you are draining a tank dry, vortexes will become an issue at some point.

 

[dkf]

TD2K thanks for your continuous help.
I found 66 questions related to vortexes /swirls, from the titles I couldnt find anything significant for further help.
Do you know if water purge of oil tanks is still mainly manually operated or is it automated in big companies? We are about to change a manually operated valve by a motor operated, and are having difficulties to incorporate operator's feeling (experience) in control set up.
TIA
DKF