Technical Notes - The Steady-State Flow of Gas Through Glass Capillary Tubes

This paper describes experimental procedures for the calibration of capillary tubes to be employed as comparison standards in gas flow-rate measurements and considers several types of flow which were observed in the calibration of seven capillaries of varying diameter. It is shown that under certain experimental conditions deviations from Poiseuille flow are observed which may not be attributed to turbulence, and that this flow behavior may be described empirically by introducing the classical kinetic energy correction into the Poiseuille equation. INTRODUCTION Techniques have been developed for the measurement of the volume rate of flow of nitrogen through glass capillary tubes as a function both of the differential pressure applied and of the absolute gas pressure. Capillary tubes thus calibrated are frequently used to determine the rate of gas flow through a porous sample in the measurement of slip-corrected permeability. The purpose of this note is to describe the calibration procedure and to discuss some observed deviations from the ideal flow behavior predicted by the Poiseuille equation. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE The volume flow rate of nitrogen as a function of the differential pressure was determined experimentally for a series of seven glass capillary tubes of varying diameter. As is shown in Table 1, the capillary radii in the series ranged from 0.004 cm for K1 to 0.07 cm for K7. The capillary tubes were cut from capillary tubing purchased on special order from several manufacturers and the bore radii were determined by microscopic measurement. The gas volume flow rate was measured for each capillary tube at a series of differential pressures in the range from 0 to 3 cm of mercury and at average absolute pressures of 1.0, 2.5, 4.0, and 6.0 atm. Experimental Procedure for Small Capillaries A schematic diagram of the apparatus used to calibrate the three smallest capillaries, Kl, K2, and K3, is shown in Fig. 1. By means of a standard Ruska Instrument Corp. volumetric pump (equipped with a synchronous motor drive, two stages of gear reduction, and a quick-change lathe gear box), nitrogen was displaced by mercury from a metal cell immersed in a constant-temperature bath. The pump, the line to the cell, and a part of the cell were filled with mercury. As mercury was forced into the cell, it displaced nitrogen which passed through the capillary tube being calibrated and into a large container with a volume of approximately 30 liters. Since the volume of this container was very large compared to the total volume change of the gas resulting from the action of the displacement pump, the absolute pressure of the system was essentially constant throughout any one run. Prior to any determination this pressure could be set at any desired level by means of an auxiliary nitrogen cylinder. The differential pressure across the capillary was measured with a Meriam Red Oil manometer and recorded together with the corresponding pump displacement rate which was equal to the gas flow rate. By repeating this process for a series of different displacement rates at each of the absolute pressures of interest, the data necessary for plotting the calibration curves for capillaries K1, K2, and K3 were obtained. All calibration measurements were made in a constant temperature room to minimize errors due to temperature fluctuations. In each run. the flow was maintained until equilibrium was established. Experimental Procedures for Large Capillaries The flow rates through Capillaries K4, K5, K6, and K7 required to obtain the pressure drops desired were larger than could be obtained from available constant displacement pumps, and it was thus necessary to employ an alternative calibration procedure. The arrangement of apparatus used in calibrating these capillaries at an average pressure of one atmosphere is shown in Fig. 2. Each capillary was calibrated by flowing nitrogen through the capillary and recording the differential pressure as a function of the flow rate. 'The differential pressure was measured with a Meriam Red Oil manometer and the flow rate was determined by collecting the effluent gas over water at constant pressure and recording the increase in volume per unit time after an equilibrium had been established. Appropriate corrections were made for the