Effect of diffuser angle on the discharge coefficient of miniature critical nozzles

Abstract

Many studies on critical nozzles have been made to accurately measure the mass flow rate of gas and standardize its performance as a flow meter. Recently, much interest has been given to measuring very small mass flow rates in industrial fields, such as MEMS applications. However, the design and performance data of the critical nozzles obtained thus far have been applied mainly to critical nozzles with comparatively large diameters, and available studies on miniature critical nozzles are lacking. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was applied to investigate the influence of the diffuser angle on the discharge coefficient of miniature critical nozzles. In computations, the throat diameter of a critical nozzle varied from 0.2 to 5.0 mm, and the diffuser angle changed from 2° to 8°. The computational results were validated with some available experimental data. The present computational results accurately predicted the discharge coefficient of gas flows through miniature critical nozzles. The discharge coefficient is considerably influenced by the diffuser angle as the throat diameter of the nozzle becomes smaller below a certain value. This implies that miniature critical nozzles should be designed with careful consideration of its effects.