How to Size Compressed Air Piping
- 1). Divide the volume of air that the pipe should hold by the pipe's length. For instance, if the pipe must hold 1,000 cubic inches of air and must measure 24 inches in length: 1,000 ÷ 24 = 41.67 inches squared. This is the pipe's necessary cross-sectional area.
- 2). Divide this area by the constant pi, which is approximately 3.142. So, 41.67 ÷ 3.142 = 13.26 inches squared.
- 3). Find the square root of this answer: For example, the square root of 13.26 is 3.64 inches. This is the pipe's necessary internal radius.
