Boyle sizing method

In 1967 a paper by Boyle IJ provided a more quantitative method for designing vents for polymer reactors. It was based on reaction rate, heat of reaction, and vapor pressure data. Boyle assumed that the venting of a system can be approximated by sizing to discharge the entire batch contents as a liquid. 

In 1972 a paper on venting by Huff 2J documented concerns that many designers suspected that to truly be safe the vent sizing of many systems should be based on assuming two-phase flashing flow in the vent system. A two-phase flow vent method developed by Huff was compared with Boyle s all-liquid method, and values from the FIA chart in Figure 2. It can be seen that under many conditions, previous methods were not... 

The method is based on Boyle s law, which states that at a constant temperature, an increase in volume of a confined gas results in a proportional decrease in pressure. If a chamber size is increased equally with or without material present in the specimen chamber, the pressure drop will be less for the empty chamber. The extent of this difference and the actual volume of the material is a measure of the percentage of closed cells. 

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