Choked flow

Choked flow of a fluid is a fluid dynamic condition caused by the Venturi effect. When a flowing fluid at a certain pressure and temperature flows through a restriction (such as the hole in an orifice plate or a valve in a pipe) into a lower pressure environment, under the conservation of mass the fluid velocity must increase for initially subsonic upstream conditions as it flows through the smaller cross-sectional area of the restriction. At the same time, the Venturi effect causes the static pressure to decrease. Choked flow is a limiting condition which occurs when the mass flow rate will not increase with a further decrease in the downstream pressure environment while upstream pressure is fixed.

For homogeneous fluids, the physical point at which the choking occurs for adiabatic conditions is when the exit plane velocity is at sonic conditions or at a Mach number of 1. The mass flow rate can still be increased by increasing the upstream stagnation pressure, or by decreasing the upstream stagnation temperature.