Inexpensive Flow Straighteners for Clean Open Channel Flows

open channel flow baffle for turbulence and poor velocity profiles In our usual cruising of the internet we came across a novel solution to dampening turbulence and straightening flow lines in open channels. Now the solution is only suitable for clean flow streams, but other than that restriction, it seems to work well and could be particulalry useful in taming industrial discharges.

The approach stacks sections of pipe on top of each other to form a honeycomb. The honeycomb is then placed upstream of the flow device.

By forcing the flow through the pipe cells, turbulence is dampened and the flow is evenly distributed across the channel.

honeycomb flow baffle

The honeycomb structure can be made of readily available, inexpensive materials such as PVC pipe. Keep in mind that if PVC is used that it will need to be painted so that it doesn’t degrade due to UV.