Industrial Instrumentation and

Measurements

Flow rate
Measurements

Assoc Prof Dr Nordin Saad

Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering
Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS
23.03.05
Email: nordiss@petronas.com.my
Tel: 05-368 7835

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 Learning
Learning Outcomes
Outcomes Assessment
Assessment Criteria
Criteria
To achieve the following Learning Outcomes: Assessment criteria:
• Have knowledge and understanding of the various process To demonstrate student has achieved the learning
industry instruments, the concept of measurements, outcomes
calibration and configuration requirements and their
applications. • Describe the measuring principles, calibration and
configuration requirements of different process
• Be able to design and develop a control loop consisting the industry instruments and their applications.
process instruments, based on a prescribed requirement. • Design and develop a control loop using the relevant
. instruments to meet specifications

Process
Process ,, Industrial
Industrial Instrumentation
Instrumentation && Measurement
Measurement
Assessment criteria: Lab experiences Assessment criteria:
• Basic concepts of measurements • Calibration, • Signal Conditioning
configuration of
• Process control terminologies transmitters, • P,T,L,F to mA, V
• Calibration controllers, • V-V,V-mA,mA-V
recorders and
other peripherals,
wiring, selection
and installation.
Assessment criteria: Assessment criteria:
• Design and
• Applications and selections of sensors and actuators implementation of • Design and implement a simple control
used in industries a simple control loop.
• Pressure Level Temperature Flow loop.

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 Flow rate Measurements
• Flow rate concepts
• Pressure Differential Meters
⇒ Obstruction Meter (Principle of operation)
⇒ Orifice Meter
⇒ Venturi Meter
⇒ Flow Nozzles
⇒ Obstruction Meter Selection

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 Flow rate Measurements
– Insertion Volume Flow Meters
• Electromagnetic Flow meters
• Vortex Shedding Meters
• Rotameters
• Turbine Meters
• Positive-Displacement Meters
– Mass Flow Meters
• Thermal Flow meter
• Coriolis Meter

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 Concepts of Flow Rate

• Average flow rate can be expressed in terms of,

– change in volume per change in time (Volume flow
rate=<V/<t)
– Average fluid velocity, vavg, and the cross-sectional area of the
pipe, A. (qavg = A vavg)
unit: m3/s
– mass of fluid transferred per unit time (Mass flow rate, W)
W=ρq, where ρ is the fluid density, q is the flow rate.
unit: kg/s

• Fluid properties - density, viscosity, specific heat will effect the

accuracy to the flow measurement

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 Flow rate Measurements

• DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE FLOW

METERS
– operates on the principle that a restriction placed in
a flow line produces a pressure drop proportional to
the flow rate squared.
– A d/p transmitter is used to measure the
pressure drop, h, produced by the restriction.
– The flow rate, q, is proportional to the square
root of the measured pressure drop.
q=K Åh

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 • Differential Pressure flow meters

Special passages transfer the fluid

pressure on each side of the orifice plate
to the opposite side of a diaphragm unit
in a d/p transmitter.
A displacement detector senses any
motion resulting from the imbalance of
the forces on a force arm (due to pressure
difference across the orifice).
An amplifier converts this displacement
signal into an adjustment of the current
input to the force transducer that restores
the balanced conditions.
Current, I, proportional to the pressure
drop across the orifice plate, is used as
the output signal of the d/p transmitter.

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 Flow rate Measurements
• Obstruction meters (Principle operation)
∗ Bernoulli Effect
– reduction in flow area will cause a measurable local pressure
drop
– reduced flow area causes a local increase in velocity

• Obstruction Meters
– Three common obstruction meters (primary flow elements) are
the orifice plate, the venturi, and the flow nozzle.
– Operates by using the similar physical reasoning to relate
volume flow rate to pressure drop.
– Assumptions
• no external energy in the form of heat is added to the flow
• there is no shaft work done within the volume
• the flow is steady and one dimensional

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 Flow rate Measurements
• Orifice plates
– An orifice plate consists of a circular plate, containing a hole (orifice),
which is inserted into a pipe.
– The advantage of orifice plates is that they are capable of metering either
gas or liquids with high degrees of accuracy,
simple and easy to fabricate, has no moving parts, that a single d/p
transmitter can be used without regard to pipe size and flow, and that it is
a widely accepted standard.
– Disadvantage: does not work well with slurries, and high permanent
pressure loss (higher pumping cost), see diagram.

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 Orifice plates
– Concentric
• suitable for most clean fluids
• a circular hole is machined in the plate so that
when the plate is installed the hole will be in
the center of the pipe

– Eccentric
• an eccentric bore plate is used to minimise
measurement inaccuracies that can be caused
by solids settling out of the liquid

– Segmental
• a segmental orifice plate is used when solids are
very heavy

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 Taps locations
– When the flow area changes
abruptly
• flow area downstream is not
necessarily be the same as the
pipe flow area due to vena
contracta effect.
• This effect is brought about by
an ability of a fluid to expand
immediately upon encountering
an area expansion as a result of
the inertia of each fluid particle.
• This forms a central core flow
bounded by regions of slower
moving recirculating eddies
• BUT, the pressure sensed with
pipe wall taps located within the
vena contracta region will
correspond to the higher moving
velocity within the vena
contracta of unknown area
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 Venturi tube
• Venturi tube
– consists of a smooth converging contraction to a narrow throat
followed by a shallow diverging section
– to be better suited for the measurement of dirty fluids and
slurries which would tend to build up in front of or clog an
orifice plate
– Low permanent pressure loss

Disadvantages:
Less accurate than orifice
Bulky and more expensive
A high sensitivity flow transmitter is needed.
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 Flow Nozzles

• Flow Nozzles Velocity coefficients, Cv

– consists of a gradual contraction to a
narrow throat (similar to a venturi tube
without a diverging section)
– needs less installation space than
venturi meter
– well suited for measurement of steam
flow, and other high velocity fluid
flows where erosion may be a problem
– like venturi meter, flow nozzles are
also suitable for process applications
involving slurries.

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 Electromagnetic Flow meter
• ELECTROMAGNETIC FLOW METER
– operating principle( Faraday’s Law); an emf of electric
potential, E, is induced when a conductor with a
velocity, U, moves (cuts) through a magnetic field of
magnetic flux, B.(Note: the moving fluid is the
conductor in this case).
– Has no moving parts and offers no obstructions to the
flowing liquid.
– Desirable features: suitable for metering corrosive and
dirty fluids (sludge in sewage treatment plants) - high
viscosity fluids and process containing solids, low
electric power consumptions,
– Less desirable features: the fluid must have a minimum
electrical conductivity, large size and high cost of the
meter, and that periodic zero flow checks are required.

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 • Magnetic Flow Meter

The induced voltage is perpendicular to both the magnetic filed and the direction
of motion of the conductor.
Two electrodes are used to detect the induced voltage, which is directly
proportional to the fluid flow rate.
The magnetic flow transmitter converts the induced ac voltage into a dc electric
current signal suitable for use by an electronic controller.

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 Magnetic flowmeter

– There two types

• AC Magnetic Flowmeter - use variable flux strength
electromagnets
– two problems: first is signal distortion and interference caused
by extraneous voltages or noises (voltage induced by the
electromagnetic field are relatively small in comparison to the
extraneous voltage). Second problem is the sensitivity of the
electrodes may be reduced if the electrodes become coated
with non conductive material
• DC Magnetic Flowmeter - use permanent magnets

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 Vortex shedding flow meter
• VORTEX SHEDDING FLOW METER
Uses unstreamlined obstruction in the flow stream to cause
pulsations in the flow.

Vortices being shed

alternatively
Flow

Non-streamlined
object

The resulting obstructions are sensed by a piezoelectric crystal.

The frequency of pulses is directly proportional to the volumetric
flow rate. This form a basis for a volumetric flow meter.
Application: Vortex meters work well on relatively clean liquids,
gas, and steam that do not contain a significant amount of solids.
The liquid should also have a relatively low viscosity.
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• VORTEX SHEDDING FLOW METER
The frequency, f, is proportional to the average fluid velocity, vavg,
and inversely proportional to the width of the obstruction, w.

The relationship between the mass flow rate (W) and the vortex
frequency, f, is given by the following equation:
W=ρwAf / St

where,
A=cross-sectional area of the pipe, m2.
f=frequency of the vortex shedding, Hz
w=width of the obstruction, m
W=mass flow rate, kg/s
ρ=density of the fluid kg/m3

Strouhal number, St = fw/ vavg

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 Turbine flow meter
• TURBINE FLOW METER
Turbine meter
Turbine meter (dual bladed helical) conventional (multibladed)

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Turbine flow meter

• TURBINE FLOW METER

The basic principle of the turbine flow meter involves
suspending a multi-bladed rotor axially in the pipe.

Flow causes the rotor to rotate at some angular velocity, which is

directly proportional to the volumetric flow rate.
The axis of rotation is perpendicular to the flow. The rotor is
constructed that its diameter is slightly less than the internal
diameter of the pipe and therefore a true average of the flow
velocity is measured. The velocity is measured by electromagnetic
pickup coils mounted externally on the meter body which
measure the passage of each blade and therefore the number of
rotations of the rotor.
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 • TURBINE FLOW METER
The magnetic sensing coil generates a
pulse each time the magnet passes by. Computer
Digital
Interface Computer
The number of pulses is related to the Magnetic
sensing coil
volume of liquid passing through the
meter by the following equation Permanent
magnetic

Flow
V=KN,
Turbine wheel

where V is the total volume of of liquid, Outlet rotor

Inlet rotor
support and
support and Shaft
K is the volume of liquid per pulse. bearing
bearing

N is the number of pulses. Pre-Amp SQUARE WAVE

SINE WAVE

The average flow rate , qavg = total Pick-Off Coil

volume, V, divided by the time interval
<t. Meter Body

Or, qavg = V/<t.=KN/ <t. But N/ <t is Rotor Blade

the number of pulses per unit time (i.e.,
the pulse frequency).
Thus q=Kf
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CORIOLIS MASS FLOW METER –
Principles of Operation
Use the measurement of torque developed when
subjecting the fluid stream to a Coriolis acceleration, as a
measure of mass flow rate.
Coriolis acceleration: On a rotating surface there is an
inertial force acting on a body at right angles to its
direction of motion in addition to the ordinary effects of
motion of the body. This force is known as the Coriolis
force.
The measuring principle is
based on the controlled
generation of coriolis forces. The
sensing meter contains a flow
tube such that, in the absence of
flow, the inlet and outlet
sections vibrate in phase with
each other. When fluid is
flowing, inertial (Coriolis) forces
cause a phase shift between inlet
and outlet sections. Two sensrs
measure the phase difference,
which is directly proportional to
mass flow.
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 When there is zero flow (with
the fluid standing still), both
phases are equal (fig. 1), no
phase difference.

When there is flow (mass

flow), the tube oscillation is
decelerated at the inlet (fig. 2)
and accelerated at the outlet
(fig. 3)

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 • CORIOLIS MASS FLOW METER

The coriolis meter consists of a U-tube and a T-

shaped leaf spring as opposite legs of a tuning
fork.
An electromagnet (drive coil) is used to excite ‘U’ Flow
tube
Optical
pick-off
the turning fork, thereby subjecting each particle Inlet

within the pipe to a Coriolis-type acceleration. Outlet

Magnetic
The resulting forces cause an angular deflection force and
pick-off

in the U-tube inversely proportional to the

stiffness of the pipe and proportional to the mass Outlet

flow rate.
Inlet
Optical
‘T’ Leaf pick-off
spring

This movement is picked up by the two optical

transducers mounted on opposite sides of the U-
tube, the output being a pulse that is width-
modulated proportional to mass flow rate.
A counter digitizes the pulse width and provides
an output, for control and monitoring.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

Tube Vibration:

Process fluid entering

the sensor is split, half
passing through each
flow tube. During
operation, a drive coil
is energized. The
drive coil causes the
tubes to oscillate up
and down in
opposition to one
another.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

Signal Generation:
Magnet and coil assemblies, called
pick-offs, are mounted on the flow
tubes. Wire coils are mounted on the
side legs of one flow tube, and magnets
are mounted on the side legs of the
opposing flow tube.

Each coil moves through the uniform

magnetic field of the adjacent magnet.
The voltage generated from each
pickoff coil creates a sine wave.
Because the magnets are mounted on
one tube, and the coils on the opposing
tube, the sine waves generated
represent the motion of one tube
relative to the other.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

No Flow - Tube Motion:

The flow tubes oscillate 180
degrees in opposition to one
another; while one tube moves
downward, the other tube moves
upward and then vice versa.

Both pickoffs - the one on the

inlet side and the one on the
outlet side - generate sine wave
current continuously when the
tubes are oscillating. When there
is no flow, the sine waves are in
phase.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

No Flow - No Coriolis
Effect:
During a no flow condition,
there is no Coriolis effect and
the sine waves are in phase
with each other.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

Flow - Coriolis Effect:

When fluid is moving through the sensor's tubes,

Coriolis forces are induced. These forces cause
the flow tubes to twist in opposition to each
other. When the tube is moving upward during
half of its vibration cycle, the fluid flowing into
the sensor resists moving upward, by pushing
down on the tube.

Having the tube's upward momentum as it

travels around the bend, the fluid flowing out of
the sensor resists having its vertical motion
decreased by pushing up on the tube. This
causes the tube to twist.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

Flow - Delta-T:
As a result of the twist in the flow
tubes, the sine waves generated by
the pickoffs are now out of phase
because the inlet side is lagging
behind the outlet side.
The amount of time difference
between the sine waves is
measured in microseconds, and is
called Delta-T.
Delta-T is directly proportional to
the mass flow rate. The greater the
Delta-T, the greater the mass flow
rate.

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Principles of Operation
Flow Operating Principle: Curved Tube

Flow Calibration Factors: The Flow Calibration

Factor consists of 10 characters, including two decimal
points. A typical flow calibration factor for a CMF
sensor would be: 4.27454.75
The value has two components:
1. The first five digits (4.2745) are the flow calibration
factor. Each sensor has a unique calibration factor. This
calibration factor, multiplied by a given Delta-T
(measured in micro seconds), yields mass flow rate in
grams/sec.
Example:
given 5 microsec Delta-T
5 X 4.2745 = 21.3725 grams/sec flowrate
2. The last three digits (4.74) are a temperature
coefficient for the sensor tube material. This coefficient
compensates for the effect of temperature on tube
rigidity. It is expressed in terms of a percent change in
rigidity per 100°C.
End
End of
of Lecture
Lecture notes
notes on
on Flow
Flow Measurement
Measurement
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