2.2.2. Pressure-drop rate
After opening the valve between the autoclave and vacuum
tank, the pressure in the autoclave drops from the initial pressure
pI to the pressure in the tank pV. The pressure in the tank
stays almost constant during the pressure drop, because the volume
of the autoclave is negligible compared to the tank and the
vacuum pump is running. The flow into the vacuum tank can
have the sonic or subsonic velocity according value of the ratio
pV/(pA −pF), where pF stands for the friction losses in the connecting
pipe. If this ratio is greater than the critical value β, the
flow is subsonic, otherwise sonic. The critical value β is defined
by [17]
β =
2
γ + 1
γ/(γ−1)
, (1)
where γ is the ratio of the specific heat at constant pressure and
constant volume, γ =Cp/Cv. At the beginning of the pressure
drop, the ratio pV/(pA −pF) is smaller than β. It means that
the flow has the sonic velocity at the pipe exit and does not
depend on pV. The pressure at the pipe exit is higher than the
pressure in the tank. The flow, which does not depend on the
tank pressure, is called choked. The pressure drops from the exit
pressure to the tank pressure in a series of shocks which are
highly nonisentropic. Neglecting friction losses in the pipe, the
problem can be approximated by the discharge of the autoclave
through an orifice towards the constant pressure pV. The molar
flow at choked conditions is given by [17]
˙n
∗ = ApA
2
γ + 1
γ+1/γ−1
γ
RTAMw
, (2)
where pA and TA are the pressure and temperature in the autoclave,
Mw the molar mass of gas and A the orifice area. The
critical ratio β for steam (γ = 1.3) is equal to 0.546. Neglecting
the evaporation of condensed water and volatile compounds in
the autoclave, the pressure variation is given by
dpA
dt
= −RTA ˙n
∗
V
, (3)
where V is the volume of the autoclave. Under the assumption
that TA is constant, the pressure is the exponential function of
time:
pA = pI exp
−t
ktheor
(4)
with the time constant ktheor given by
ktheor = V
a
γ + 1
2
γ+1/γ−1
Mw
γRTA
. (5)
The pressure-drop rate at the beginning is equal to
dpA/dt|t=0 =−pI/ktheor.
The pressure histories are shown in Fig. 4 for discharging
without diaphragm and through an opening of 6 mm. The
thin curves stand for the best fitting of the initial phase by
exponential curves. The experimental values of pressure-drop
rate are evaluated from these curves (see Table 1). At the full
opening the measured k is much greater than ktheor. These two
values are closer for small openings. The differences can be
explained by the inertia of the pressure gauge (Keller PAA
23S, 1MPa). It must be also keep in mind that the free section
grows gradually due to a final rate of the valve opening.
The frictional losses in the pipe were neglected. These losses
diminish the pressure difference between the pressure in the
autoclave and at the pipe exit. It means that the choked flow
Fig. 4. Pressure-drop history in autoclave (upper thick line) and vacuum tank
(lower thick line) connected with different openings: (a) 80 mm, (b) 6mm. The
solid thin line stands for exponential curves that best fit the beginning of the
expansion. The dashed thin line in (a) stands for pressure drop of compressed
air.
will change to subsonic earlier. Another effect of these losses is
an enhanced exit temperature resulting in a lower molar flow.
The decreasing temperature in the autoclave during expansion
results in a lower volume of discharge gas. The evaporation of
the water condensed on the autoclave walls increases considerably
the amount of the discharged gas. The slow pressure-drop
rate below 0.3MPa is due to this phenomenon. The thin dotted
curve in Fig. 4a stands for the expansion of air. As there
is no evaporation, the curve is quite exponential with exception
of very beginning where the final rate of valve opening
manifests itself (k = 0.05 s). The gas dynamics of the autoclave
discharge will be studied in another paper. In this work we
shall refer to the experimental values of drop-rate k obtained
as a best fitting of the measured pressure histories in the range
(0.5–0.32MPa).