Utility & Power Quality

Textile Compressed Air Pipe Network Pressure Drop Modeler

Loss falls with the fifth power of diameter. One pipe size up cuts it roughly threefold.

Pipework Network
m³/min
mm
m
m
f
Air & Cost System
bar g
°C
%
kW
h
/kWh
bar

Pressure Drop

— bar

Lost to friction between compressor and machines

Network Performance

Air Velocity
— m/s
Pressure at Machine
— bar g
Compressor Energy Penalty
— %
Annual Cost of the Drop
— /yr
Diameter for Target Drop
— mm
Total Equivalent Length
— m

Density is taken at the working pressure and held constant along the run, which is the standard incompressible approximation and stays reasonable while the drop is a small fraction of absolute pressure — above roughly 10% it understates the loss and a compressible treatment is needed. Velocity above about 9 m/s in a main is the practical design ceiling regardless of what the pressure drop says, because velocity carries condensate and noise with it. Fittings equivalent length is where most estimates go wrong: a single poorly chosen valve or a run of tight elbows can exceed the straight pipe, and it should be built up item by item rather than guessed.

Textile Compressed Air Pipe Network Pressure Drop Modeler — free, with the formula and a worked example, at Textile School.