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steam speed

Doug Kaminski
Doug Kaminski Member Posts: 1
in THE MAIN WALL
Does anyone know how fast steam travels or some place to find hard facts.

Comments

  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,601
    It depends

    on the pressure, the load, and the size of the pipe. In steam heating, the design velocity can be upwards of 5,000 feet per minute.
    Retired and loving it.
  • Tony Conner
    Tony Conner Member Posts: 549
    Where...

    ...noise isn't an issue and you've got steam at 100 or 125 PSIG (a lot of industrial applications are like this), and the piping runs are short enough to allow it (maybe 150 - 200 feet, max) I routinely design for a peak of 12,000 feet per minute. You can really make it whistle - literally. People in occupied spaces (offices etc.) usually fail to appreciate this musical quality, though. With space heating, you're typically dealing with low pressures, so you can't take a very big pressure drop anyway, even if you don't care about noise. Velocity noise in occupied spaces is a real issue though, and you have to pay attention to it. If you're beside the corrugators in a box plant? You can't hear ANYTHING over that roar anyway. Noise from the steam velocity in the piping and control valves isn't any kind of a factor there.

    Pressure drop, velocity, and how much steam you can move through a given pipe size are all tied together - if you change one, you change 'em all.
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