Technical Bulletin
TBN023.1/2001
FAN AND SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Airflow Systems
An airflow system consists of a fan (or
several fans) and of various elements
through which the airflow can pass.
These may be ducts, elbows, expanding
or converging transistions, heating and
cooling coils, screens and guards,
dampers, louvers and shutters, nozzles,
bag houses and other filters, or bubble
pools. Each component will offer some
resistance to airflow, and the fan has to
develop sufficient static pressure to
overcome all these resistances. The total
of all these resistances is called the
system resistance or the resistance
pressure. The static pressure produced
by the fan has to be equal to the
resistance pressure.
An airflow system also will have a
characteristic curve of resistance pres-
sure versus air volume. It will show the
different static pressures that will be
required to force certain air volumes
through this specific system. This curve
is called the system characteristic.
A fan curve, which showed a typical
static pressure versus air volume curve. It
showed the different static pressures a
specific fan will produced when choked
down to certain air volumes. This curve
can be called the fan characteristic.
If we will plot the fan characteristic and
the system characteristic on the same
sheet of graph paper, usually there will be
a point of intersection of the two curves.
This point of intersection will be the only
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point that will satisfy both the fan
characteristic and system characte-
ristic. It therefore will be the point of
operation.
Airflow Through a Pool of Stationary
Liquid
Normally, the system resistance (i.e. the
static pressure needed) will increase with
the velocity and therefore with the
volume of the air passing through the
system. An exception is a pool of sta-
tionary liquid through which air or a gas
is forced in bubbles, as in the aeration of
sewage or of molten iron. Here the
system resistance will be constant, re-
gardless of the volume, because it is
simply the hydrostatic pressure present-
ed by the liquid. This hydrostatic pres-
sure will be proportional to the depth of
the pool and to the specific gravity of the
liquid (so it will be very high for molten
iron). However, the hydrostatic pressure
obviously will not depend on the air
volume forced through the liquid. (The
air volume will depend only on the
amount of air made avail-able by the
fan.) No air can bubble through if the
maximum pressure produced by the fan
is smaller than this hydrostatic pressure.
This is shown in Fig. 1. Note that the
system characteristic is a straight
horizontal line. However, if the pressure
produced by the fan is adequate, the
bubbles will flow. From here on, no
extra pressure (only more fan capacity) is
needed to force more air

through the liquid. Fig.2 shows the fan
characteristic and the system characteris-
tic for this case.
Fig. 1 Fan characteristic and system
characteristic for a bubble pool with
no point of intersection. No bubbles
can pass through the liquid.
Fig. 2 Fan characteristic and system
characteristic for a bubble pool with
a point of intersection. Gas bubbles
will pass through the liquid.
The system characteristic is again a
straight horizontal line, indicating that
the static pressure needed to force
bubbles through the liquid is constant,
regardless of the air velocity, from 0 cms
to the point of operation and beyond.
The formula for this system characteristic
is
SP = K (Q )0 = K
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Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001
The constant K determines the height of
the horizontal line above the air
volume.
Apart from this exception case, the
static pressure needed to blow or draw
air through an airflow system is not
constant, but it increases with the air
volume or velocity. The question now
is: how fast will it increase? The answer
is: it depends on the air velocity and on
the resulting type of airflow (laminar or
turbulent).
Airflow Through Filter Bags
The total area of filter bags in a bag
house is made large in order to keep the
flow resistance low, even when the
bags start to get plugged up by the dust.
As a result of the large area, the velocity
of the air passing through the fabric is
very low, about 0.015 to 0.020 m/s,
and the corresponding Reynolds
number Re is small. For standard air,
we can calculate the Reynolds number
from the following equation:
ρVD
Re =
μ
where ρ = gas density, in kg/m3
V = average air velocity, m/s
D = Diameter of duct, m
μ = Air viscosity, Ns/m2
For standard air, ρ = 1.22 kg/m3, μ
=1.82x10-5 Ns/m2
For duct diameter, 1ft = 0.305m
(1.22)(0.015)(0.305)
Re =
1.82x10 −5
Re = 307
This is far below the 2000 value where

turbulent airflow might start. This means
that the airflow through the filter bags is
laminar. The system characteristic for
laminar airflow can be calculated from
the formula
SP = K x Q
This is a straight, inclined line through
the origin, as shown in Fig. 3. The
constant K determines the steepness of
the straight line: K= tanα. As the bags
get plug up by dust, the filter efficiency
will improve and the system resistance
and the steepness angle α will increase,
but it will still be a straight line.
Fig. 3 Fan characteristic and system
characteristic for laminar airflow,
such as air passing through filter
bags.
Airflow Through a Grain Bin
Various grains, such as corn, rice, soy
beans, barley and wheat, have to be
dried after harvesting to prevent spoilage
Fig. 4 Fan characteristic and system
of the grain. For this purpose, they are
stored in cylindrical grain bins that can
be from 4 - 25m high. Vaneaxial fans or
centrifugal fans are used to force heated
air through the grain bin.
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Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001
The static pressure needed to overcome
the resistance of the system depends on
the height of the bin and on the type of
grain. It can be from 750 - 5000 Pa. For
the lower pressures, vaneaxial fans can
be used, but for the higher pressures,
centrifugal fans are needed. However,
whatever the static pressure, the
velocity of the air passing through the
grain is about 0.1 m/s, approxi-mately
six times as large as the 0.015 to 0.020
m/s through filter bags.
The corresponding Reynolds number,
then, is about 2100, the beginning of
slightly turbulent airflow, and the
formula for the system characteristic is
SP = K (Q )1.5
This is a curve through the origin, as
shown in Fig 4. The constant K
determines the steepness of the curve.
For higher grain bins and for greater
grain compaction (such as wheat), the
curve gets steeper.
characteristic for slightly turbulent
airflow, such as air passing through
grain bins.
 Technical Bulletin - TBN023.1/2001

Airflow Through a Ventilating System

In a conventional ventilating system,
such as used in buildings, both the air
velocities and the Reynolds number are
considerably larger than in bag houses or
grain bins. (Only in the filter section are
they still low.)

For example, a 710-mm vaneaxial fan

delivered 4.0 m3/s against static pressure
of 600 Pa. The 715mm i.d. duct has an
area of 0.4015 m2; thus the air velocity
will be V = 4.0/0.4015 =9.96 m/s, and
the velocity pressure will be VP= Fig. 4 Fan characteristic and System
(9.96/1.3)2 =59Pa. Let’s assume that our characteristic for turbulent airflow
system will consist of this 715mm i.d. prevailing in ventilating systems.
duct plus some other equip-ment,
resulting in a total resistance pressure of
It may be interesting to note that the
600 Pa. Our Reynolds number will be
basic equation of the friction loss for a
Re = 477,370. Since this Reynolds
straight, round duct with constant
number is far above 2000, this is
diameter and smooth walls:
definitely turbulent airflow, as is normal
in ventilating systems. The formula for
the system characteristic now is
L
ƒ = 0.0195 VP
D
SP = K (Q )2

This is a parabola through the origin, as is proportional to (Q)2 , indicates the

shown in Fig. 5. If one point of the same thing for a ventilating system.
system characteristic is known, the
other points can be calculated, and the Table 1 summarizes the four different
parabola can be plotted. airflow systems.

Table 1 - Comparison of Flow Conditions for Four Airflow System

Type of Type of Air velocity Reynolds Formula for system
system airflow (m/s) number characteristic
Bubbling pool - SP = K (Q)0
Filter bags Laminar 0.015 307 SP = K (Q)
Grain bins Slightly turbulent 0.100 2100 SP = K (Q)1.5
Ventilating system Turbulent 9.960 477000 SP = K (Q)2

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