Also, speed and velocity are NOT the same thing, in any aspect (fluid or mass transport).
Please take Physics I.
Flow rate of a liquid is not always measured in gpm (galons per minute), especially NOT in beer lines from a keg.
Smh, Wikipedia is not a credible source.
Speed and velocity are the same thing if an object is only traveling in one direction. Speed refers to distance travelled, velocity refers to displacement.
Scenario 1: You can drive your car in a perfectly straight line from point A to point B, which are 25 miles apart, and back at a constant 50 MPH. You traveled 50 miles in one hour, so your average speed was 50 MPH. However, since you returned to the same place, there was no displacement so your velocity was zero.
Scenario 2: You drive your car in a perfectly straight line from point A to point B, at a constant 50 MPH. Your distance travelled was 25 miles in a half hour, so your speed was 50 MPH. The car is also displaced 25 miles in a half hour, so your velocity was also 50MPH.
Speed and velocity can be the same thing if you're referring to something moving in only one direction. Flow through tubing, like in a kegerator, is generally modeled using cylindrical coordinates. The flow is only in the L-axis, and it's only moving forward, so speed and velocity are the same in this case.
Ohm's Law is quite a stretch when it comes to an analogy to beer lines and a keg.
Ohm's Law as an analogy is absolutely not a stretch in this situation. You have pressure on a fluid and flow through a restrictive tube. You have a pressure drop through the fluid that is proportional to the flow through the tube. Just like you have a voltage drop through a resistor that is proportional to the current flowing through the resistor. Again, I'm not the only one that uses an electrical circuit as an analogy for other physical systems; this is something that is universally taught in all universities and used by all engineers. It's found in any fluids textbook. Please stop acting like I'm crazy for bringing it up.
Seems like Bernouli's equation is more applicable. PV=nRT.
The ideal gas law is not the same as Bernoulli's principle, and it's not applicable when describing the flow of a liquid, only a gas.
Also flow rate only remains the same in a loop system when there are no actual jobs being preformed. If you added a cylinder or motor, flow would decrease to do the effeciency loss in the spools, housings, and seals.
No, the mass flow rate (and for an incompressible liquid at the same temperature, volumetric flow rate) is the same throughout the entire system. This is due to the conservation of mass: you can't create or eliminate mass. If a pound per minute of water enters a pipe, it has to come out at a pound per minute once the system has reached a steady state. Even if there are multiple pumps in line. The pressure will change, sure, but not the flow rate. Again, this is analogous to an electrical circuit. It doesn't matter how many batteries (pumps) are thrown into a circuit, the total current (flow rate) in the circuit is the same at every point. The voltage (pressure) may change as you go through different resistors, but if you have 5 amps in, you have 5 amps out.
And using flow rate or velocity is different in terms of units. But the both measure the movement of a fluid in a pipe.
This is true, like I said, but that doesn't mean they're interchangeable. Saying the flow increases when pressure decreases is a false statement, but saying the velocity increases when the pressure decreases is a correct statement. Because you were saying "flow" instead of "velocity" or "speed", your statement was incorrect.
And you have the terms mixed up. Flow is measured by flow rate or velocity.
The term "flow" is used to refer to flow rate, either mass or volumetric. You can say "flow can be calculated by measuring velocity" but you cannot say "flow is measured by velocity."
You sure could measure you faucet in MPH
I said "you can't describe the volumetric flow rate out of your faucet in MPH." I did not say "you can't measure your faucet in MPH." I used the term volumetric flow, and that is correct. You cannot measure the volumetric flow rate coming out of your faucet in MPH. You can measure the velocity coming out of your faucet in MPH. Again, you need to make the distinction between the two.
My compound bow shoots 325FPS which is around 220MPH.
That's great, I'm happy for you and your bow. Both feet per second and miles per hour are units of velocity or speed. They are not units of flow. Gallons per minute or liters per hour are examples of units of volumetric flow rate. For a fluid traveling through a pipe or tube, you need the cross sectional area to convert between velocity and flow. Velocity and flow refer to different things, they are not interchangeable, and that cannot be argued.
OT, but zachattack, do you work at Millipore in Billerica?
Haha this whole thread has gone way off topic. No, I work a little closer to Boston, you can PM me for more details. I know one or two people that work at Millipore though.
Listen everyone, I'm sorry that this thread has come to this. I'll admit to being stubborn, but in this case I'm not wrong.
One cannot argue facts, and there are two facts that you keep arguing over:
1) Flow rate and velocity/speed are not interchangeable
2) Ohm's Law and electrical circuits in general are very commonly used analogies, taught by every university and used by every engineer, for fluid dynamics, mass transport, and heat transport.
These are both facts. I'm sorry that you two keep disagreeing, but it's not going to get you anywhere.