TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

Orifice Plate Sizing

R0-20180201

Revision History
Date Version Description Prepared by Checked by
2018-02-01 0.0 Initial version Sachin Holkar Ruben Garay

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Contents
1 Orifice Plate Sizing........................................................................................................3
1.1 Theory.................................................................................................................... 3
1.2 Selecting required pressure drop across orifice for CIP application........................4
2 Guidelines to use the tool.............................................................................................6
3 Suggestions from reference team & its implementation............................................8
3.1 Suggestions............................................................................................................8
3.2 Implementation.......................................................................................................8
4 Open Issue..................................................................................................................... 8

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1 Orifice Plate Sizing
1.1 Theory
This tool is used to calculate the size of orifice diameter in order to maintain the required flow and
the pressure on downstream of orifice plate through CIP & utility lines.

An orifice plate is a most popular device used for reducing pressure, restricting flow or for measuring
flow rate. It uses the same principle as a Venturi nozzle i.e. Bernoulli's principle. Orifices are often
used to balance pressure drop for different branches on a CIP circuit where capacity may vary
between cleaned objects

Orifice plates are not allowed to use for product pipes and should be used only for CIP media or
utilities like tower water, chilled water. This is to avoid product contamination because of
inefficient cleaning on both side of vena contracta. In Fig. 1.0, marked area shows the region that
is difficult to clean during CIP.

Fig 1
Orifice Plate Sizing:
When sizing an orifice plate, it is important to remember that the orifice plate is a fixed opening
device that is selected based on only one set of conditions. Therefore, sizing must be made on set of
actual operating conditions.

Incompressible flow through an orifice in a pipeline is commonly described by the following equation

2 Δp/ ρ
Q = CdAo x

Equation 1.0
√ [ 1−( Ao / A )2 ]
-----------

Fig 2– Flow through an orifice

Q = Product flow rate, m3/s

Cd = Coefficient of discharge, dimensionless
π 2
Ao =   do = Cross-sectional area of Orifice, m2
4
π 2
A =   d = Cross-sectional area of Pipe, m2
4
ΔP = Differential pressure across orifice, Pa
ρ = Product density, kg/m3
do = Orifice diameter, m
d = Pipe diameter, m

For CIP or water media, the equation 1.0 can be solved to orifice diameter in mm as below

Internal
 Q(lit /hr )
d 0=
√ 24 √ ∆ P ¿ ¿ ¿
¿-----------Equation - 2.0

do = Orifice diameter, mm
Q = CIP / water flow, lit/hr
ΔP = Required differential pressure across orifice, bar

Orifice plates should be normally installed in a straight run of smooth pipe to avoid disturbance of
flow patterns from fittings and Valves.
1.2 Selecting required pressure drop across orifice for CIP application
Pressure drop across orifice is selected based on the available CIP header pressure from where
tapping for spray ball is drawn and the required inlet pressure at spray ball.
Example: Let’s consider a process tank installed with 1” Clip-on SaniMidget spray ball with 360 o spray
pattern (refer fig 3.0) for CIP purpose. Based on its performance curve, the maximum effective
impact cleaning is at 2.0 bar inlet pressure. (refer fig 4.0 )

Fig 3- SaniMidget 1”-Clip-on

Fig 4- Performance curve for SaniMidget

For 2.0 bar inlet pressure, the flow passing through spray ball is 6.0 m 3/hr. (refer fig 5.0, for clip-on
models the flow rate should be increased by approx. 0.5 m 3/h).

So, if CIP header pressure is 3.5 bar & the required inlet pressure for spray ball is 2.0 bar, then
pressure drop across orifice should be 1.5 bar considering negligible pressure loss in piping between
CIP header & orifice (if there is considerable pressure loss then it should be subtracted from CIP
header pressure).

Therefor sizing parameters for orifice are,

Pressure drop, ∆P = 1.5 bar

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Flow = 6.0 m3/hr = 6000 lit/hr

Fig 5- flow through sprayball

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2 Guidelines to use the tool
a) Start engineering toolbox.
b) Create a new project by using Tab New or if the project is already there in My Projects then
simply select the project.
c) Select tool Orifice Plate Sizing and press tab start calculation to enter into tool (refer fig.6).

fig 6
d) Following calculation sheet will open.

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 Fig 7
Here project details like Project Number, Project Name & Customer will directly flow from
project data which is filled during project creation but still user can edit this data if required.

Other details like Drawing Number, Date, Document No, Revision & Issued / Checked by
should be filled by user.

In Top row we have 3 Tabs & their functions are,

- Reset - To reset the process values
- Save - After pressing this tab by default it will open the path selected during project
creation also we can save the calculation to another path if required.
- Info - To navigate to info sheet.

Input Data: Fill following required process data into white color cells

- Enter the pressure drop wanted to be achieved in bar

- Enter flow rate in lit/hr

Output: Calculated Orifice diameter in mm will be displayed in light orange cells.

Fig 8

e) Typical example:
Let’s consider a process tank installed with 1” Clip-on SaniMidget spray ball with 360 o spray
pattern for CIP and assume main CIP header pressure as 5.0 bar.
As explained in section 1.2, based on performance curve of the spray ball the maximum
effective impact cleaning is at 2.0 bar.
And for 2.0 bar inlet pressure, the flow passing through spray ball is 6.0 m 3/hr.
Therefore, required pressure drop and flow through orifice are,
- Pressure drop, ∆P = 5.0 – 2.0 = 3.0 bar

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 - Flow = 6.0 m3/hr = 6000 lit/hr

Use above data into input cells (white cells).

Therefore, for getting a pressure drop of 3.0 bar at 6000 lit/hr flow, the required orifice
diameter should be 12.0 mm

3 Suggestions from reference team & its implementation

3.1 Suggestions
a) Need to add standard application calculation on top of pure pressure prop vs hole size.
e.g. orifice working in parallel with cleaning sprayball - what size orifice I need to balance
flow through sprayball and branched pipe with orifice.
b) Should also be able to count for steam and air.
c) Provision to calculate the minimum thickness of the plate, sometimes the differential
pressure is big enough to fold the plate.
d) Better help file or guide required to use this tool.
3.2 Implementation
a) A typical example is given is section 1.2 to calculate an orifice diameter for spray ball
applications where an orifice plate is used to maintain the required flow and the pressure
through spray ball.
b) NA
c) NA
d) Section 1 and section 2 of this document gives clear idea about theory & guide to use the
tool.

4 Open Issue

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