Actual Cubic Feet Per Minute
Actual cubic foot per minute (ACFM) is the volume of gas flowing anywhere in a system, independent of its temperature and pressure. If the system were moving a gas at exactly the "standard" condition, then ACFM would equal SCFM. Unfortunately, this usually is not the case as the most important change between these two definitions is the pressure. To move a gas, a positive pressure or a vacuum must be created. When positive pressure is applied to a standard cubic foot of gas, it is compressed. When a vacuum is applied to a standard cubic foot of gas, it expands. The volume of gas after it is pressurized or rarefied is referred to as its "actual" volume.
SCF and ACF for any gas are related in accordance with the combined gas law:
Defining standard conditions by the subscript 1 and actual conditions by the subscript 2, then:
where is in absolute pressure units and is in absolute temperature units (i.e., either kelvins or degrees Rankine).
To be very precise when the gas is air, then the above equation should include correcting for the difference between the relative humidity of the air at the standard and the actual temperature and pressure conditions. In most cases of engineering design, the humidity correction for air is often quite small and hence often ignored.
Read more about this topic: Standard Cubic Feet Per Minute
Famous quotes containing the words actual, cubic, feet and/or minute:
“That the mere matter of a poem, for instanceits subject, its given incidents or situation; that the mere matter of a picturethe actual circumstances of an event, the actual topography of a landscapeshould be nothing without the form, the spirit of the handling, that this form, this mode of handling, should become an end in itself, should penetrate every part of the matter;Mthis is what all art constantly strives after, and achieves in different degrees.”
—Walter Pater (18391894)
“One of the great natural phenomena is the way in which a tube of toothpaste suddenly empties itself when it hears that you are planning a trip, so that when you come to pack it is just a twisted shell of its former self, with not even a cubic millimeter left to be squeezed out.”
—Robert Benchley (18891945)
“The time of the seasons and the constellations
The time of milking and the time of harvest
The time of the coupling of man and woman
And that of beasts. Feet rising and falling.
Eating and drinking. Dung and death.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)