Summary

The pressure drop or flow rate through a valve or orifice plate is typically calculated using the a flow coefficient, Cv or orifice diameter. This article demonstrates how to convert between these two parameters when performing functions such as selecting a valve with an equivalent pressure drop to a given orifice plate.

Definitions

Subscripts

Orifice Diameter as a function of Cv

The formula for equating the orifice diameter to the flow coefficient is as follows:

Where the diameter $D$ is in meters, and the $C_{v}$ is in US units USGPM and PSI.

The above equation permits the specification of a $\beta$ ratio, which is the ratio of the orifice diameter to the upstream pipe diameter. This equation can be simplified by assuming that the orifice diameter is small compared to the upstream pipe diameter, i.e. ( $\beta = 0$ ), as follows:

Cv as a Function of Orifice Diameter

Alternatively an orifice diameter can be converted to an equivalent Cv using the equation below:

Again we can simplify the equation by assuming that ( $\beta = 0$ ) to get the following:

Conversion Values

The table below provides a quick reference for the conversion between $C_{v}$ and $D$ assuming that $\beta = 0$ and $C_{d} = 0.61$ .

Further Reading

• Flow Measurement Engineering Handbook, R. W. Miller
• Albright’s Chemical Engineering Handbook, L. Albright
• Instrument Engineers’ Handbook, Vol. 1: Process Measurement and Analysis