Sizing Duct Systems

An Engineering library of all possible rectangular duct sizes is needed, as is the case with Cylindrical pipe.

If there are no geometric restrictions, the Candidate Set should use all of the duct sizes. Certain areas of the system may have maximum width or height restrictions. In these areas, a different Candidate Set should be created from the same Engineering library.

There are two variables for a rectangular duct - height and width, whereas a normal pipe only has one - diameter. ANS treats these variables as independent when solving for the ideal size. This means that duct Candidate Sets must have corresponding widths and heights for every duct dimension.

For example, consider three duct sizes in a Candidate Set: 8x8, 10x10, and 12x12. Because width and height are considered independent by ANS, it is possible that 8 would be selected for width and 10 for height. However, 8x10 is not in the Candidate Set. ANS will warn that the Candidate Set is incomplete when this is detected.