FLOW MEASUREMENT

Weightage: 12 Marks
Reynold’s number:
The Reynolds number is a dimensionless value that measures the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces
and describes the degree of laminar or turbulent flow.
• Systems that operate at the same Reynolds number will have the same flow characteristics even if the
fluid, speed and characteristic lengths vary.

The Reynolds number is calculated from:

𝑽𝑫 𝑽𝑫
𝑹𝒆 = =
µ 𝒗
Where:
V= Velocity of fluid
D= Diameter of the pipe
= The density of fluid
µ= The dynamic viscosity of fluid
𝑣 =The kinematic viscosity of fluid

Pitot Tube
1. “PITOT TUBE” is a device used for point pressure measurement in a flowing fluid.
2. The Pitot tube measures the combined pressure (static pressure + impact pressure).
3. The pitot tube has one impact opening and eight static openings as shown in the diagram.
4. The impact opening is provided to sense impact pressure and the static opening are provide to sense
static pressure.
Operation of Pitot Tube:
The pressure in the outer tube is the static
pressure in the line. The total pressure in the
inner tube is greater than static pressure. That
is, total pressure is the static pressure plus the
impact pressure. The differential pressure (P1-
Ps) is measured using a differential pressure
sensor. This differential pressure becomes a
measure of flow rate at that point where the
pitot tube is present in the flowing fluid.

Advantages of pitot tube:

1. It causes no pressure loss in the flowing
fluid.
2. Pitot tube is cheap and very easy to install.

Limitations of Pitot tube

1. It is difficult to obtain proper alignment of the pitot tube with flowing direction.
2. It cannot be used in fluids with suspended solids and impurities.
3. The fluid velocity should be high in order to get a measurable pressure difference.

Applications of pitot tube

1. Pitot tubes are extensively used in laboratories to measure velocity, pressure and flow rates of fluids.
2. pitot tube is used in wind tunnel experiments and on airplanes to measure flow speed
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
Dall Tube Flow Meter
Construction:
1. The tube consists of a short, straight inlet section followed by an abrupt decrease in the inside
diameter of the tube. This section, called the inlet shoulder, is followed by the converging inlet cone
and a diverging exit cone.
2. The two cones are separated by a slot or gap between the two cones.
3. The low pressure is measured at the slotted throat (area between the two cones). The
high pressure is measured at the upstream edge of the inlet shoulder.

Flow rate and pressure drop are related as

shown in Equation

V = k√Dp
Where
V = volumetric flow rate
K = constant derived from the mechanical
parameters of the primary elements
DP = differential pressure

Advantages:
 Dall Flow Tube has a higher ratio of
pressure developed to pressure lost
than the venturi flow tube.
 It is more compact and is commonly
used in large flow applications.
 Very low permanent pressure drop – energy savings
 Easy to install – short overall lengths
 Accurate flow metering of clean gases, liquid and steam
 Negligible wear and erosion therefore require less maintenance/inspection

Disadvantages:
 More complex to manufacture.
 Sensitive to turbulence.
 Not suitable for hot feed water
 It is design for clean fluid so not suitable for the fluid having suspended particals

Applications:
 Flow measurement in gas transmission pipelines
 Flow metering of clean gasses
 Single phase flow measurement of hydrocarbon gas
 Flow measurement in circular pipes

Variable Area Flow Meter:

• It works on variable area principle: fluid flow raises a float in a tapered tube, increasing the area for
passage of the fluid. The greater the flow, the higher the float is raised. The height of the float is directly
proportional to the flowrate.
• The most common design of variable area meter is Rotameter.

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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
Rotameter
• Rotameter or Variable Area meter is an instrument used to measure the flow rate of a fluid by using a
simple float in the moving fluid.

Parts of the Rotameter:

The main parts of a Rotameter are:
1. A tapered transparent glass tube graduated to read flow
rate directly.
2. A float is used whose density is greater than the flowing
fluid. The float’s diameter is such that it completely
blocks the inlet of the tapered transparent glass tube.

Operation of Rotameter:
1. As the fluid whose flow rate is being measured comes and
touches the bottom portion of the float blocking the inlet
of the tapered transparent glass tube, the float starts to rise when the following happens:
2. Pressure of flowing fluid + flowing buoyancy is greater than downward pressure due to weight of the
float.
3. When the float rises, an annular space is created between the periphery of the float and the inner wall
of the tapered transparent glass tube. This annular space which is concentric opening through which
the fluid passes to the other side of the instrument keeps on increasing until the following happens:
(pressure of the flowing fluid) + (fluid buoyancy) = (Downward pressure due to weight of the
float)
4. When this happens, the float stops rising further and stops at a particular position, that is, the float
comes to equilibrium.
5. Thus, increase in flow rate will make the float to rise higher and vice versa. That is, the position of the
float becomes a direct indication of flow rate. Hence the tapered transparent glass tube can be graduated
suitably by proper calibration to get a direct indication of flow rate by noting the position of the float
with respect to the graduations on the tapered tube.
6. The instrument has to be designed in such a manner so that the effects of changing viscosity and density
are minimized leaving only pressure of the flowing fluid as a variable.

Advantages of Rotameter:
• Flow conditions are visible.
• Flow rate is a linear function (uniform flow scale).
• Can be used to measure flow rates of liquids, gases and vapours.
• By changing the float, tapered tube or both, the capacity of the Rotameter can be changed.

Limitations of Rotameter:
• They should be installed vertically.
• They cannot be used in measurements of moving objects.
• The float will not be visible, when colored fluids are used, that is, when opaque fluids are used.
• For high pressure and temperature fluid flow measurements, they are expensive.
• They cannot be used for fluids containing high percentage of solids in suspension.

Application of the Rotameter:

• Rotameter can be used to measure flow rates of corrosive fluids.
• It is particularly useful to measure low flow rates
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
Anemometer (Hot wire Anemometer):
Basic Principle of Hot wire Anemometer
• When an electrically heated wire is placed in a flowing gas stream, heat is transferred from the wire to
the gas and hence the temperature of the wire reduces, and due to this, the resistance of the wire also
changes. This change in resistance of the
wire becomes a measure of flow rate.

Description of Hot wire Anemometer

The main parts of the arrangement are as
follows:
• Conducting wires placed in a
ceramic body.
• Leads are taken from the
conducting wires and they are connected
to one of the limbs of the wheat stone
bridge to enable the measurement of
change in resistance of the wire.

Operation of Hot wire Anemometer

There are two methods of measuring flow rate using a anemometer bridge combination namely:
 Constant current method
 Constant temperature method
Constant current method:
 The bridge arrangement along with the
anemometer has been shown in diagram. The
anemometer is kept in the flowing gas stream to
measure flow rate.
 A constant current is passed through the sensing
wire. That is, the voltage across the bridge
circuit is kept constant, that is, not varied.
 Due to the gas flow, heat transfer takes place
from the sensing wire to the flowing gas and
hence the temperature of the sensing wire
reduces causing a change in the resistance of the
sensing wire. (This change in resistance
becomes a measure of flow rate).
 Due to this, the galvanometer which was initially
at zero position deflects and this deflection of the
galvanometer becomes a measure of flow rate of the
gas when calibrated.

Constant temperature method

 The bridge arrangement along with the
anemometer has been shown in diagram. The
anemometer is kept in the flowing gas stream to
measure flow rate.
 A current is initially passed through the wire.

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Weightage: 12 Marks
 Due to the gas flow, heat transfer takes place from the sensing wire to the flowing gas and this tends
to change the temperature and hence the resistance of the wire.
 The principle in this method is to maintain the temperature and resistance of the sensing wire at a
constant level. Therefore, the current through the sensing wire is increased to bring the sensing wire
to have its initial resistance and temperature.
 The electrical current required in bringing back the resistance and hence the temperature of the wire
to its initial condition becomes a measure of flow rate of the gas when calibrated.

Application of Hot wire Anemometer

In research applications, they are extensively used to study varying flow conditions.

Positive Displacement Flow Meter

 A positive displacement flow meter are volumetric flow measurement instruments which has a cyclic
mechanism built to pass a fixed volume of fluid through with every cycle.
 Every cycle of the meter’s mechanism displaces a precisely defined (“positive”) quantity of fluid, so
that a count of the number of mechanism cycles yields a precise quantity for the total fluid volume
passed through the flow meter.
 It is the only flow measurement technology that directly measures the volume of the fluid passing
through the flowmeter.

Oscillating Piston Flow Meter:

• Oscillating piston flow meters use a precision-machined chamber containing a cylindrical piston that
oscillates as liquid flows.
• The piston’s central shaft is constrained to run in a circular groove in the chamber, resulting in an off-
center rotating motion as the liquid sequentially enters and exits compartments machined into the
underside of the piston.
• Since the volume of the compartments are known, the amount of liquid metered per revolution can be
calculated accurately.
• Liquid enters a precision-machined chamber containing an oscillating (rotating) piston. The position
of the piston divides the chamber into compartments containing an exact volume. Liquid pressure
drives the piston to oscillate and rotate on its center hub.
• The movements of the hub are sensed through the flow meter wall by a follower magnet. Each
revolution of the piston hub is equivalent to a fixed volume of fluid, which is indicated as flow by an
indicator/totalizer.
• Close clearances between the piston and the
chamber ensure minimum liquid slip for
highly accurate and repeatable flow
measurement of each volume cycle.

Advantages of Oscillating Piston Meters

 High accuracy and repeatability.
 Only one moving part to cause wear.
 Moderate cost

Disadvantages of Oscillating Piston Meters

 Can only be used with relatively clean liquids.
 Only small sizes are available
 Limited power capacity
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
Rotating Vane Flow Meter
• These meters basically include uniformly divided rotating impellers with two or more compartments
inside the chamber. The number of rotations of the impeller are counted and recorded in volumetric
units.
• Spring loaded vanes slide in and out of a channel in a rotor so that they make constant contact with the
eccentric cylinder wall.
• When the rotor turns, a known
volume of fluid is trapped
between the two vanes and the
outer wall.
• The flow rate is based on
volume per revolution.
• The piston type is suitable for
accurately measuring small
volumes and is not affected by
viscosity.

Advantages
• Reasonable accuracy of 0.1%.
• Suitable for high temperature service, up to 180°C
• Pressures up to 7 Mpa
• Maximum flow rate that it can support is 17500 gpm

Disadvantages
• Suitable for clean liquids only
• High cost

Application:
These types of meters are frequently employed in the petroleum industry.

Nutating Disk Flow Meter

• It has a moveable disk mounted on a concentric sphere located in a spherical side-walled chamber.
• The pressure of the liquid passing through the measuring chamber causes the disk to rock in a
circulating path without rotating about its own axis.
• It is the only moving part in the measuring chamber.
• A pin extending perpendicularly from the disk is connected to a mechanical counter that monitors the
disk's rocking motions.
• Each cycle is proportional to a specific
quantity of flow.
• As is true with all positive-displacement
meters, viscosity variations below a given
threshold will affect measuring accuracies.

Advantages:
• Relatively low cost
• Applicable to automatic liquid batching
system
• Make use of moderate pressure loss
• Construction available in several material
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
Disadvantages
• Limited to pipe size and capacity
• Accuracy average
• Not suitable for slurries

Coriolis Flow Meter

• The force is applied to oscillate the flow pipes and the Coriolis Effect is the principle used to determine
the acceleration due to the torque (the amount of twisting).
• Sensors are used to measure the amount of twist in the flow tubes within the meter as a result of the
flow tube vibration and deflection due to the mass flow.
• The amount of twist measured is
proportional to the mass flow rate and is
measured by magnetic sensors mounted
on the tubes.
• Developments on the looped pipe
Coriolis meter were made to keep to the
pipes straight.
• This is done by making the pipes straight
and parallel.
• The force is applied by oscillating the
pipes at the resonant frequency.
• This has the advantage of reducing pressure loss in the pipeline.

Advantages
• Direct, in-line mass flow measurement.
• Independent of temperature, pressure, density, conductivity and viscosity.
• Sensor capable of transmitting mass flow, density and temperature information.
• High density capability.
• Conductivity independent.
• Suitable for hydrocarbon measurements.
• Suitable for density measurement.

Disadvantages
• Expensive.
• Affected by vibration.
• Installation costs is more.
• Adjustment of zero point.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter

• Ultrasonic flow meters utilize sound waves to measure the velocity of a fluid from which the
volumetric flow rate can be calculated.
• Unlike most flowmeters, ultrasonic meters do not include any moving parts and thus are more reliable,
accurate and provide maintenance free operation.
• Since ultrasonic signals can also penetrate solid materials, the transducers can be mounted on to the
outside of the pipe offering completely non-invasive measurement eliminating chemical compatibility
issues, pressure restrictions, and pressure loss.
• Ultrasonic flow meters are affected by the acoustic properties of the fluid and can be impacted by
temperature, density, viscosity and suspended particulates depending on the exact flowmeter .
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
There are two types of ultrasonic flow meters:
1. Transit Time
2. Doppler Shift

Ultrasonic Flow Meter –Transit Time

• Transit time flow meters measure the
travel time of two sound waves.
• One wave travels the same direction as
the flow while the other travels against the
flow.
• At zero flow, sensors receive both waves
at the same time, i.e., without transit time
delay.
• As the fluid moves, it takes an
increasingly longer time for the downstream
wave to reach the upstream sensor.
• This measured "transit time difference" is directly proportional to the flow velocity and therefore to
flow volume.
• Transit time flow meters require the fluid to be free from suspended solids or gas bubbles and in a
closed and full piping system.
• With zero flow velocity, the transit time to of the pulse from the transmitter to the receiver is given
by:
𝒍
𝒕𝟎 =
𝑽𝒔

With a velocity V, the transit time to becomes

𝒍 𝒍(𝑽𝒔 − 𝑽)
𝒕𝟎 = = 𝟐
𝑽𝒔 + 𝑽 𝑽𝑺 − 𝑽𝟐
𝒍 𝒍 𝟐𝒍𝑽
∆𝒕 = (𝒕𝟐 − 𝒕𝟏 ) = − =
𝑽𝒔 − 𝑽 𝑽𝒔 + 𝑽 𝑽𝑺 𝟐

Advantages of Transit Time Flow Meters

1. Easy installation-transducer set clamps onto pipe.
2. No moving parts to wear out.
3. Zero pressure drop.
4. Works well with clean and ultrapure fluids.
5. No leakage potential.
6. Insensitive to liquid temperature, viscosity, density or pressure variations.

Disadvantages of Transit Time Flow Meters

• The transit time flow meter performance can suffer from pipe-wall interference, accuracy and
repeatability problems can result if there is any Space Gap between the fluid and pipe wall.
• The transit time flow meters will not operate on dirty, bubbly, particulate-ladden fluids. Sometimes,
the purity of a fluid may fluctuate so as to effect the accuracy of the flow measurement.
• For such cases, there are Hybrid meters on the market that will access the fluid conditions within the
pipe and automatically choose doppler or transit time meter operations where needed.

Applications of Transit Time Flow Meter

Transit time flow meter have wide applicability for flow measurement of clean or ultra-pure streams.
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 FLOW MEASUREMENT
Weightage: 12 Marks
1. Clean water flow rate in water treatment plants.
2. Hot or cold water in power plants.
3. Pure and ultra-pure fluids in pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries.
4. Liquid to medium crude oils in the petroleum refining industry.
5. Water distribution systems used in agriculture and irrigation.

Ultrasonic Flow Meter –Doppler Shift

• Doppler-shift flowmeters operate on the principle that the wavelength of an approaching sound source
is shorter than the wavelength of that same source as it is moving away.
• A transducer emits a sound wave which reflects off entrained particles or bubbles back to the
transducer.
• The measured difference in the
wavelengths of the transmitted signal
versus the reflected signal is proportional
to the process' velocity.
• Doppler flow meters are used for slurries,
liquids with bubbles, or gases with sound
reflecting particles.
• They can also be adapted for use in open
channels by integrating with level
transmitters.
• The velocity of the fluid is given by

𝚫𝐟𝐂𝐭
𝑉= =Δ𝑓𝐾,
𝟐𝒇𝟎 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝛉
𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒
Δ𝑓=𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢e𝑛𝑐𝑦,
𝐶𝑡=𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑟
𝑓𝑜=𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝜃=𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑟𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤.𝑟.𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑖𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑠
𝐾=𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡

Advantages of Doppler Flow Meter

The main advantage of doppler flow meter is its non-intrusive design.
1. Easy installation and removal.
2. No process downtime during installation.
3. No moving parts to wear out.
4. No process contamination.
5. Works well with dirty or corrosive fluids.
6. No leakage potential.
7. Insensitive to liquid temperature, viscosity, density or pressure variations.

Disadvantages of Doppler Flow Meter

• The main disadvantage of the doppler flow meter is the fact that the liquid stream must have
particulates, bubbles, or other types of solids in order to reflect the ultrasonic signal.
• It is not a good choice for the water and very clean fluids.
• The accuracy can depend on particle-size distribution and concentration and also on any relative
velocity that may exist between the particulates and the fluid.
• If there are not enough particulates available, the repeatability will degrade.
• It has trouble operating at very low flow velocities.
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Weightage: 12 Marks
Applications of Doppler Flow Meter
Being a non-intrusive, Doppler flow meters have a wide variety of applications.
Some of them include:
1. Waste water.
2. Crude oil flow.
3. Mining slurries.
4. Acids.
5. Liquefied gases.

ASSIGNMENT

2 MARKS
1. Define Reynolds number. State its formula.
2. State the materials of tube and float of rotameter.

4 MARKS
1. State the applications of orifice meter Venturi tube and Pitot tube.
2. Draw the construction and explain working of rotameter.
3. Draw the construction and explain working of nutating disc type positive displacement meter.
4. Describe the working principle of ‘Oscillating piston flow meter’
5. Describe the working principle of "Dall tube". Also state applications.

6 MARKS
1. Draw and explain the working of ‘Transit time Ultrasonic flow meter’.
2. Explain with neat sketch Coriolis flowmeter. State advantages and applications.
3. Define ultrasonic flow measurement. Describe working principle of doppler flow meter with two
advantages.

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