Water Pressure Gauge Idea

[Carbongrip]

Ok so I have been doing more research on head pressure and flow rate. While I was doing this I got an idea, what if I adapted a inline water psi gauge into a pc water cooling loop. Could I use it to measure the head pressure in different parts of my loop?

 

Converting pressure in psi to head in feet

h = 2.31 p / SG                          

where

h = head (ft)

p = pressure (psi)

It seems like a fun project to better understand how a water loop works...

[Christophe Corazza]

You're better off looking at this formula:

 

dP

—  =  - ρ * g

dh

 

where P is the pressure, the greek letter rho (ρ) is the density of the fluid, g is the gravitational acceleration (9.81 m/s² or 9.81 N/kg) and h is the height.

After integration:

 

ΔP = - ρ * g * Δh

 

Here you can see that the pressure difference is dependent on the density of the fluid.

The density is, on its part, dependent on the temperature (T):

 

ΔP (T) = - ρ (T) * g * Δh

 

So you can already see that in a cooling loop (where the temperature changes), you also need to incorporate a temperature measurement to correct for the changing density.

 

It all depends on how accurate you would like your pressure measurements to be and the actual fluid in the loop.

If it is simply for fun, then... hey why not? 

[AnonymousGuy]

I have pre-and-post particulate filter pressure gauges on my whole-house loop.  I use the information to set the pump voltage to maintain 20psi (any higher and it just creates chances for leaks and such).  It also tells me how clogged the filter is.

 

There isn't much purpose to do it in a desktop watercooling loop.  Any flow is sufficient.  If you insist, you can buy an NPT tee, put NPT -> barbs on the in-line ports and then a pressure gauge on the top port.   Alternatively Aquacomputer I believe makes a pressure gauge that will directly work with g1/4.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0087UCI8C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Anderson-Metals-Fitting-Barstock-Female/dp/B000BQUTBS/ref=pd_bxgy_328_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000BQUTBS&pd_rd_r=H3NCDKMEQ8V8TSEMP8WZ&pd_rd_w=MWQd6&pd_rd_wg=2PITs&psc=1&refRID=H3NCDKMEQ8V8TSEMP8WZ