The reason one large tube flows faster than many small tubes is straightforward enough. The primary SDI (slowing-down influence; please pardon the scientific jargon) is interaction between the fluid and the walls of the tube(s). Four 1" tubes have the same area as one 2" tube, but twice the wall surface, hence (roughly) twice the drag.
Another way to look at it: Imagine a square tube with 2" sides. Now imagine a + shaped insert you could slide into the tube, effectively making it into four 1" square tubes nested together. Is that insert going to increase flow?*
And yet another: As Shylock queried in The Merchant of Venice, if you prick us, do we not bleed? Well yeah, we do, but we bleed a lot faster if you hit an artery than a zillion capillaries.
That said, amazing things have been discovered through experimentation, and surprising results--though generally resulting from defects in the experiments--occasionally** result in scientific advancements. But I think the mysteries of subsonic fluid flow were pretty well beat to submission in the 1800s. Stokes' Law predates the Civil War, and Reynolds Numbers were used in the sewage industry twenty years before the Bros. Wright took their first powered flight. So I, for one, will be quite amazed*** if your premise...
wrightcomputing wrote:
It struck me that air flows faster through multiple smaller tubes rather than a single larger tube of the same area.
...proves correct.
wrightcomputing wrote:
Any thoughts, before I Patent MY idea and become a millionaire?
I think the great majority of patents in that arena expired in the days when scientists wore muttonchops.
*Rhetorical question answer: nope.
**Rarely nowadays, but it happens.
***And so will the folks who build intercoolers. If there's more interaction between air and the walls of one big tube than a bunch of small tubes, they'll want to start making intercoolers with one big tube.