The 7th TSME International Conference on Mechanical Engineering

13-16 December 2016

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Comparison Study on Fabric Duct System Design Method

Chirdpun Vitooraporn1*, Taweephong Sirikuttanon2

1 Dept. of Mech. Eng. Faculty of Engineering Chulalongkorn University, 254 Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
2 Dept. of Mech. Eng. Faculty of Engineering Chulalongkorn University, 254 Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330 Thailand
* chirdpun@hotmail.com, 02-218-6622, 02-252-2889

Abstract
Fabric duct system has been used extensively in the past ten years due to its simplified design,
uniform air dispersion, cost saving, lightweight, quiet, no risk of condensation, hygienic, easy to maintain
and use. Moreover it can provide colorful duct outlook and can be recycled. Conventional metal duct system
normally discharges air through equally spaced side mounted metal diffusers which resulted in less efficient
air mixing in the occupied space and hence can cause drafting and hot or cold spots. For fabric duct system,
air is discharged more uniformly along the entire length of the duct system providing consistent and uniform
air dispersion in the occupied space and hence better air mixing. However there is no specific method on
fabric duct system design at present. Most designers usually rely their fabric duct system design in the hand
of fabric duct suppliers such as DuctSox, Phihoda, and etc. in which their designs are totally based on their
own experiences from installing the system.
The objective of this research is to present a new and independent method for general usage in
fabric duct system design. The developed method is based on mathematical model which involved friction
loss information for fabric duct from experiments and minimum static pressure to properly maintain duct
shape. It also concerns on the regain of static pressure happened along the length of the duct as well as the
no. and size of air dispersion openings. The developed method is presented in the form of nomograms for
convenient usage. The comparison study between the developed method and method presented by DuctSox
is done on the same duct layout. It is found that the developed method tends to provide a larger duct diameter
than that from DuctSox. The size of air dispersion opening is the same for both methods but the no. of
opening from developed method are less than those from DuctSox. Results also show that the DuctSox
method tends to provide less uniform static pressure and flow rate through opening than those obtained
from the developed method. Further investigation on other duct layouts to gain more information is
expected in the future.
Keywords: Mathematical model; static regain; fabric duct system; duct design; nomograms.