Vortex Breaker

A emergency fix is to drop a few planks into the suction pit. It prevent circular flow and a vortex from forming.

This same idea can be followed by placing baffles in the pit.

The energy of the inlet flow should also be dissipated otherwise it may cause a circular motion.

Mr Coriolis should also be banned.

A simple vortex breaker can be made as follows:

• From the same materials-of-construction of the tank, cut three pieces of flat sheet, in the form of a long right-angled triangle, longer than the 5:12:13 right-angled triangle, for illustrative purposes. The "5" side should be longer than 2/3 of the diameter of the outlet pipe, so that when the vortex breaker is assembled, it is too large to pass into the tank outlet pipe.
• Fasten the "12" sides together so as to form a structure similar to the head of a 3-sided arrow.
• Position the sharp end of the arrow inside the outlet connection of the tank, so that it cannot pass into the outlet pipe.

Bingo. One vortex breaker.

Products to this design may be found in the KrisDel^TM catalogue (usual disclaimer), though Stinky Pete may have squirrelled one away somewhere.....

Thanks abo galala .... as usual simple answer with numerous benefits....urs mbaz

Thank you mbaz_81,

You are welcome, but why your sharing is only 5 posts since Aug 2007, we look for many participations.

For that CR4 Thread title, you can also see: Vortex Problems in Pump Applications.

Is a vortex breaker required if the pump suction nozzle is to the side (i.e. vertical side) of the vessel ?

If the suction nozzle located at the side, there must be a specific min. head of liquid and we recommend vortex breaker and/or flat baffle. See the following site: https://www.gouldspumps.com/

Dear Abdel Halim,

You always came up with correct and precise answers. can i know your email address. please.

sajid aslam

Metallurgical and Materials Engineer

working in petrofac.

regards

CR4 Admin - email address removed

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AS I KNOW , THE VORTEX BREAKER IS USED IN SOME TYPES OF PRESSURE VESSELS, ITS LOCATION IS OPPOSITE THE OUTLET NOZZLES, IT IS USED TO BREAK THE VORTEX WAVES STREAMS NEAR THE OUTLESS NOZZLE

I worked on Main Condenser for Steam Powerplants and the hotwell condensate discharge have what we called "baffles" whose primary function was to prevent swirl in the discharge flow. The baffles were cross "+" plates welded inside of the condensate discharge pipe.

Hello Guest,

Whenever there is flow of water through a drain pipe, you will notice a swirling effect.

You might have seen this in sink of your kitchen, or when you are draining the bathtub.

The same applies to silos or deareators where the suction point at deareator creates

swirling effect (vortex).

Now, this is harmful to pump as it traps air and causes cavitation in pump, so to break the swirling a "vortex breaker" is installed at the suction point ( bottom of deareator) ...as shown in the image.. (see 13B)

This does not allow the vortex to form and hence is useful in deareators.

Hope it is clear.

Cheers.

or

Refer to "Pressure Vessel Handbook", Megyesy, Vortex Breaker

sorry can you specify wich unit system must be used in formula?

Thanks

Mr.papasumit replied as

You can use the following equation from the ANSI/HI 9.8-1998 "Hydraulic Institute´s Pump Intake Design" that is:
S = D + 2.3DFr
S is the minimum required submergence to avoid vortex formation.
D is the nozzle diameter and Fr is the dimensionless Froud number, Fr = V/(gD)**0.5
V is the nozzle flow velocity and g the gravitational acceleration.

If you consider Metric System,

S will be in Metre, D will be in Metre, Fr is FROUDE NUMBER a dimension less number ( refer standard book on Hydraulics), 'g' will be 9.81 Metre per Sec^2, and V will be in Metre/Sec.

If you consider FPS system (now this has become obselete but still on records) the Unit will be

S will be in Feet, D will be in Feet, Fr is FROUDE NUMBER a dimension less number (refer standard book on Hydraulics), 'g' will be 32.2 Feet per Sec^2, and V will be in Feet/Sec.

If you wish to use any other system, coversion factors/chart are available for further use.

DHAYANANDHAN.S