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Old 02-10-2010, 11:31 PM   #16 (permalink)
stonebreaker
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ View Post
That's not entirely true, but for the most part, it is.

Reducing the diameter of the pipe can allow for less turbulent flow through the tube if the volume of flowing gasses isn't enough to "fill" the tube at it's current temperature/density.
How do you figure that? The Reynolds number calculation for a pipe is

R = QD/vA

Q = volumetric flow rate
D = diameter of the pipe
v = viscosity
A = cross-sectional area of the pipe

Since the volume of flow and the viscosity don't change, the only variables are the diameter and the area; and for a circular cross section, the area increases as a function of the square of the radius * pi; so the Reynolds number is always going to be lower for the larger diameter pipe.
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