Investigation on the swirlmeter performance in low pressure wet gas flow

Wet gas flow is a subset of gas-liquid two-phase flow, and the swirlmeter has been used in wet gas flow metering more and more recently. The swirlmeter performance in low pressure wet gas flow was investigated. It is found that the entrained liquid present in a gas stream tends to induce a negative bias in the gas flow rate reading of swirlmeter comparing with equal gas flow rate. When the Lockhart-Martinelli parameter X, which is closely related to the liquid fraction, is bigger than a threshold value, the swirlmeter will not properly work due to the disappearing of vortex precession. It is also found that the liquid-induced gas flow rate reading errors of swirlmeter are dependent on X and the gas densiometric Froude number Fr_g. A correlation for swirlmeter in low pressure wet gas flow is proposed, and it corrects the liquid-induced gas flow rate errors to an accepted accuracy under the tested conditions. It implies that the swirlmeter with the proposed correlation and the known liquid fraction may be used to meter the gas flow rate in wet gas applications with a relatively low liquid fraction.     

Influence of the flow area around the ball valve on the flow characteristics of the injector control valve

The increase in common rail pressure can lead to increased cavitation inside the injector, resulting in degradation of injector performance and reduced life. The paper investigates the effect of the pressure block structure parameters (initial flow area around the ball valve) on the velocity field, pressure field, fuel gas phase volume fraction and drain rate of the control valve. The relationship between the initial flow area around the ball valve on the cavitation strength and unloading rate inside the valve was revealed. The results show that both the reduction of the flow area around the ball valve and the increase of the cavitation intensity inhibit the rate of oil discharge from the control valve. The reduction of the fuel flow area inhibits the expansion of the low-pressure region (0–1 MPa) within the flow layer, thus limiting the development of cavitation. The reduction of the cavitation area increases the fuel flow rate, however, the increase in flow rate increases the cavitation phenomenon, and these changes form a cycle (Reviewer 5. comment 2). The increase in cavitation inhibits the control valve pressure relief rate more significantly than the decrease in the initial flow area around the ball valve. Based on this, a stepped-pressure block model is proposed. The stepped pressure block model can effectively reduce the cavitation strength near the seal and enhance the oil discharge rate of the control valve. The study can provide a reference for the engineering optimization design of high-pressure common rail injector control valves.     

Development of a flow control valve with digital flow compensator

Flow control valves typically use mechanical pressure drop compensator or dynamic flow meter to lessen the impact of pressure drop on outlet flow. However, there are some disadvantages, such as complex mechanical structure and small flow capacity. In this paper, a kind of digital flow compensator with bilinear interpolation algorithm is presented to compensate the pressure drop, in which the pressure drop and the desired outlet flow are the two input parameters. A two-stage proportional flow control valve with the proposed compensator is investigated. Pressure drop across the metering orifice of the valve is measured and fed back to the proposed compensator. If the detected pressure drop has deviated from the threshold, then the compensator will generate a compensation signal to adjust the poppet opening of the valve, which ensures that the output flow is independent of the pressure drop. Performances of the valve with the proposed compensator are investigated by simulation and experiment. Results show that it has a reasonable static control characteristics. In addition, there is no dead-zone in its steady flow curve; pressure drop have little impact on its output flow. Its dynamics will be affected by pressure drop and input voltage. Increasing pressure drop can improve system dynamics under constant input signal conditions. On the other hand, increasing input signal can shorten the poppet's closing time, but it will result in the longer opening time and the greater overshoot in the opening stage.     

Study on flow characteristics around the thermowell

In the paper, the effects of different Reynolds numbers on the flow and dynamic characteristics of the thermowell were studied. The results show that a “downwash” phenomenon occurs in the thermowell wake flow field, a “tip” vortex exists on the right, and a “mushroom” vortex lays at the bottom of the free end of the thermowell. The lengths of the reflux zone and the forms of vortex shedding are different on the different horizontal sections of a thermowell. With the increase of the Reynolds number, the size of the “mushroom” vortex gradually decreases, and the “tip vortex” gradually increases. At the same horizontal section, the length of the recirculation zone becomes shorter with the increase of the Reynolds number, and the vortex shedding form gradually changes from “2S” shape to the straight line shape. In the region below 50% height of the thermowell, with the increase of Reynolds number, the boundary layer separation line gradually moves forward, both flow resistance of the casing and “downwash” phenomenon gradually increase, and both lift force around the casing and vortex shedding frequency in the wake decrease. The flow resistance and vibration induced by vortex shedding are the leading causes of thermowell damage.     

Effect of the convergence flow conditioner on rectifying eccentric jet flow induced by a ball valve

Installing a flow conditioner is an important method for rectifying irregular and unstable flow to stable flow state within a short flow distance in fluid transportation and control industrial applications. However, classical flow conditioners (such as Laws and Zanker flow conditioners in ISO 5167) with parallel pipeline axial orifices ineffectively rectify the distinct eccentric jet flow caused by valve regulation. The convergence flow conditioner with convergent orifices was innovatively designed for rectifying the eccentric jet flow caused by a ball valve in this study. Three convergent orifice angles (8°, 10°, and 12°) defined as angles between orifice and pipeline axes were considered to compare their effect on eccentric jet flow rectification as well as with the classical Laws flow conditioner (characterized by the convergent orifice angle of 0°) under different valve openings with an experimental setup for monitoring downstream pressures that develop along the pipeline and corresponding numerical simulation used. Pressure loss and throttling effect of installing convergence flow conditioners downstream the ball valve was assessed. Analysis of distributions of the pressure, velocity, and streamline for convergent flow conditioners showed that the flow conditioner with a large convergent orifice angle can effectively improve violent eccentric jet flows, especially under a small valve opening. The axial velocity on various downstream cross sections was extracted to evaluate the velocity uniformity. A dimensionless parameter of velocity eccentric ratio was used to quantify the rectification effect of eccentric jet flow evolving in the downstream pipeline. Results showed that a short pipeline length is needed to obtain additional symmetry and uniform flow field downstream of the flow conditioner with a high convergent orifice angle, that is, the convergence flow conditioner with a high convergent orifice angle demonstrated a strong effect of flow rectification on the valve-induced eccentric jet flow. This work can help understand characteristics of flow rectification on valve-induced eccentric jet flow in scientific research, and provide guidance for the flow conditioner design in fluid engineering.     

Transient flow analysis on opening process of pneumatic gas proportional valve with two-solenoid valve

The gas proportional valve (GPV) is a pneumatic pressure regulator, and the change in operating pressure will directly affect the opening and closing condition of the spool. In this study, the procedure for opening the spool is studied. The process of regulating the pressure of the GPV is revealed by the dynamical simulation method. The characteristics of displacement, total pressure and velocity of the spool during opening are analyzed. As time increases, it is found that the turbulence in the downstream of GPV becomes more obvious. In the process of spool movement, the influence of different inlet working pressures on spool displacement is analyzed. With a full open time of less than 1.5 × 10^ (−2) s, the spool reaches the stable state of full opening. In addition, the transient process of outlet flow is also studied. The simulated outlet flow is stable at 152 m³/h for the maximum opening. In order to verify the simulation results, the test of valve flow is carried out on the test bench. The results show that these methods can reduce the design difficulty and provide a reference for further optimization and engineering application of GPV.     

Influence of flow disturbances on the performance of industry-standard LNG flow meters

In the last decade significant progress has been achieved in the development of measurement traceability for LNG inline metering technologies such as Coriolis and ultrasonic flow meters. In 2019, the world's first LNG research and calibration facility has been realised thus enabling calibration and performance testing of small and mid-scale LNG flow meters under realistic cryogenic conditions at a maximum flow rate of 200 m³/h and provisional mass flow measurement uncertainty of 0.30% (k = 2) using liquid nitrogen as the calibration fluid. This facility enabled, for the first time, an extensive test programme of LNG flow meters under cryogenic conditions to be carried out to achieve three main objectives; the first is to reduce the onsite flow measurement uncertainty for small and mid-scale LNG applications to meet a target measurement uncertainty of 0.50% (k = 2), the second is to systematically assess the impact of upstream flow disturbances and meter insulation on meter performance and the third is to assess transferability of meter calibrations with water at ambient conditions to cryogenic conditions. SI-traceable flow calibration results from testing six LNG flow meters (four Coriolis and two ultrasonic, see acknowledgment section) with water in a water calibration facility and liquid nitrogen (LIN) in the LNG research and calibration facility under various test conditions are fully described in this paper. Water and LIN calibration data were compared and it was observed that the influence of removing the meter insulation on mass flow rate measurement accuracy can be more significant (meter error > ±0.50%) than the influence of many typical upstream disturbances when the meter is preceded by a straight piping length equal to twenty pipe diameters (20D) with no additional flow conditioning devices, in particular for ultrasonic meters. The results indicate that the correction models used to transfer the water calibration to cryogenic conditions (using LIN) can potentially result in mass flow rate measurement errors below ±0.5%, however, the correction models are specific to the meter type and manufacturer. This work shows that the target measurement uncertainty of 0.50% can be achieved if the expanded standard error of the mean value measured by the meter is smaller than 0.40% (k = 2). It is planned to repeat these tests with LNG in order to compare the results with the LIN tests presented in this paper. This may reveal that testing with an explosion safe and environmentally friendly fluid such as LIN produces representative results for testing LNG flow meters.     

离心通风机蜗壳内的流动特征及节能改造试验研究

利用FLUENT软件对G4-73No.8D型离心式风机以及分别加装圆筒型、圆锥筒型防涡圈后的风机内部三维流场进行数值模拟,结果表明,加装防涡圈后的风机蜗壳内部流场流动明显得以改善。对风机在加装防涡圈前后进行的性能试验表明,风机加装圆筒型和圆锥筒型防涡圈后,当相对流量 时,效率平均提高了3.1%和3.48%,验证数值模拟的正确性。理论和试验研究还表明圆锥筒型防涡圈节能效果优于圆筒型防涡圈。     

A practical method to assess the performance of gravimetric flow test rigs by using the timing error

This paper proposes an improved method to assess the performance of a gravimetric flow test rig. It addresses the study of two of the most important measurement systems: the weighing scale and all mass-related corrections, and the time measurement system. By performing a regular diverter test according to ISO 4185:1980 several times and under different conditions, it was possible to determine not only the statistical variances of the diverter system, but also the variances of the meter under test and of the flow test facility separately. The proposed method allows also under special conditions the determination of systematic errors in the mass determination. The method has been successfully applied at the large water flow calibration facilities of PTB in Braunschweig and Berlin and is recommended as a routine to test the performance of gravimetric flow test facilities.     

水压锥阀空化射流流场结构与流量特性的相关性研究

为了研究水压锥阀空化流场与流量特性的相关性,对两种阀座结构的水压锥阀内部的空化射流开展了三维动态流场仿真.结果表明,直角型锥阀和倒角型锥阀均在阀芯后沿存在分离流诱发的附着型空化,在阀口下游有漩涡空化;此外,倒角阀座流道内亦存在分离流现象并形成附着型空化.倒角型流道入口处的分离流造成流体的局部加速,对于0.6 mm开口度...     

Experimental study on the vortex flow in a concentric annulus with a rotating inner cylinder

This experimental study concerns the characteristics of vortex flow in a concentric annulus with a diameter ratio of 0.52, whose outer cylinder is stationary and inner one is rotating. Pressure losses and skin friction coefficients have been measured for fully developed flows of water and of 0.4% aqueous solution of sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), respectively, when the inner cylinder rotates at the speed of 0-600 rpm. Also, the visualization of vortex flows has been performed to observe the unstable waves. The results of present study reveal the relation of the bulk flow Reynolds number Re and Rossby number Ro with respect to the skin friction coefficients. In somehow, they show the existence of flow instability mechanism. The effect of rotation on the skin friction coefficient is significantly dependent on the flow regime. The change of skin friction coefficient corresponding to the variation of rotating speed is large for the laminar flow regime, whereas it becomes smaller as Re increases for the transitional flow regime and, then, it gradually approach to zero for the turbulent flow regime. Consequently, the critical (bulk flow) Reynolds number Re_c decreases as the rotational speed increases. Thus, the rotation of the inner cylinder promotes the onset of transition due to the excitation of Taylor vortices.     

Development of a novel rotary flow control valve with an electronic actuator and a pressure compensator valve for a gas turbine engine fuel control system

This paper presents a new rotary proportional flow control valve with Cam-Nozzle configuration. The rotating cam against the fixed nozzle changes the flow area and then can meter the fuel flow. This valve equipped with a pressure compensator plunger type valve to retaining constant pressure difference across the flow control or metering valve. The cam shaft directly coupled to an electronic servomotor type rotary actuator and then it is possible to apply digital control techniques such as pulse width modulation (PWM) in this control system. This new valve configuration is developed for an electro hydro mechanical fuel control system in a gas turbine engine. In addition to aero engine application, this type of flow metering valve can widely be used in industrial hydraulic systems. In this unit, the output flow is proportional to the cam's angular position (or throttle command) and it is not sensitive to pressure fluctuations at nozzle inlet and outlet. The aim of this new design is to modify a manual single adjusted hydro-pneumatic fuel control unit to obtain a new electro-hydraulic fuel control system for a gas turbine engine. The main innovations in the presented fuel metering unit include new design of the rotary valve opening shape (Cam-Nozzle) without metal to metal contact, use of a rotary electronic actuating mechanism and also direct coupling between the actuator and the rotating cam. The increased fuel metering precision in the new flow control valve has improved the ultimate control accuracy of system. A computer simulation software based on the proposed model, is performed to predict the steady state and transient performance and to analyze effect of important design parameters on valve outlet fuel flow and obtain the final design parameters. The validity of the proposed valve configuration is assessed experimentally in the steady state and transient modes of operation. The results show good agreement between simulation and experimental in both modes (max. 4% deviation).     

采用流场分析提高涡轮流量传感器性能的研究

以10 mm口径液体涡轮流量传感器为研究对象,经过对传感器内部流场进行分析,提出通过减小靠近叶片顶端的叶片受力面积,提高传感器测量性能的方法。从对特性曲线的分析出发,结合传感器数学模型,提出了一种利用不同流量点的仪表系数平方差Δ(K~2)评价传感器性能的方法。在此基础上,结合CFD仿真和传感器样机实验测试,研究了不同叶轮叶片形状参数对传感器性能的影响。实验结果表明:改变叶轮叶片形状能有效提高传感器的测量性能,切角参数为0.25时,传感器性能最优;此方法同样适用于其他口径涡轮流量传感器结构的优化。     

挟沙水流对混凝土的冲磨机理研究及冲磨试验机研发

研究了挟沙水流对混凝土的冲磨破坏机理及主要影响因素,分析了常用的混凝土冲磨试验方法,提出了旋转喷射式冲磨试验原理,并根据此原理研制了旋转喷射式混凝土抗冲耐磨试验机。与现有冲磨机相比较,该试验机的模拟冲刷过程更接近混凝土真实工况,并且可以实现不同冲刷条件下一定冲刷速度范围内的任意速度调节,冲刷速度高,冲磨效果好,能够有效地对不同配合比混凝土的抗冲磨性能作出比较。     

幅流风机叶轮参数对内流特性的影响研究

针对幅流风机风抗过大导致风量低,全压效率过低.基于FLUENT结合双圆弧叶片设计理论对原叶轮叶片结构进行了优化设计,分析其内流特性细节,实现了风量提升.仿真结果表明,改变叶片弯度角影响风机静压,改善风机风抗;厚度减少风量明显提升;增大部分端部圆风量减小.叶片弯度角、厚度和端部厚度均对风量影响很敏感,是影响幅流风机内流特...     

Development of a novel two-stage proportional valve with a pilot digital flow distribution

Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering - Pilot two-stage proportional valves are widely used in high-power hydraulic systems. For the purpose of improving the dynamic performance, reliability, and...     

Study on the parallel pressure differential type gas laminar flow sensing technique

Parallel pressure differential (PPD) type laminar flow sensing technique was invented several years ago to reduce nonlinear effect in a traditional laminar flow element (LFE). In this paper, the internal flow of each branch in a PPD LFE is numerically simulated for gas flow. The results show that the relative deviation of the pressure drops of the two branches in a PPD LFE is within ±0.05% as inlet mass flow being the same, indicating that the flow resistance characteristics of the two branches are consistent, which means that the hypothesis of a same flow rate for the two branches in a real PPD LFE is tenable. There is little difference, ±0.01%, in the local pressure losses of the two upstream capillaries outlet flows, which can be ignored in a real measurement, further verifying that the theoretical analysis of the PPD principle is reliable. Capillary length effect in a PPD LFE is also examined. The bigger capillary length, the higher measurement precision can be achieved for a certain length range. For instance, it is suggested that the length of the short components should not be shorter than the laminar flow dimensionless entrance length defined by X_e (L_e/d/Re, where L_e is the entrance length) = 0.035, for flow measurement uncertainty within ±1.0%. The simulation and experiment results of gas flow show that the suitable value of K_exp is 1, and in the flow range of (0.0256–5.2985) m³/h measurement error of a PPD LFE is within ±0.8% only with expansion correction, indicating that the PPD laminar flow measurement technique is suitable for the gas flow.     

Development of a novel two-dimensional(2D) three-way(3W) fuel flow control servo valve with constant pressure difference

To solve the problems of large volume, and low integration of traditional electro-hydraulic servo valve with constant pressure differential fuel metering device, a new two-dimensional three-way constant pressure differential fuel flow control servo valve (2D3WFFCSV) is developed. It innovatively adopts the advantages of lightweight of “two-dimensional hydraulic technology”, The constant differential pressure function and flow regulation function are integrated into a two-dimensional (2D) main spool with two degrees of freedom (rotational and axial degrees of freedom). The flow control process of 2D3WFFCSV is as follows: firstly, the armature of the torque motor and the two-dimensional piston are coaxially installed at the end of the two-dimensional piston, so the torque motor can directly drive the two-dimensional piston to rotate; secondly the “hydraulic servo screw mechanism”, which can amplify the power, is used to drive the two-dimensional piston to move in line; Finally, a pair of conversion mechanisms (roller group and spiral track conversion mechanism) are converted into the angular displacement of 2D main spool to control the area of flow valve port. The axial degree of freedom of 2D main spool realizes the function of constant differential pressure. To improve the flow control accuracy of the servo valve, the axial position of the 2D piston is detected by the linear displacement sensor (LVDT), and the signal is transmitted to the controller to realize the closed-loop control. To explore its open-loop characteristics, the mathematical models of torque motor, two-dimensional piston and main spool are established to obtain its open-loop transfer function. Then the AMESIM simulation model is built. To optimize the design of the system, through the dynamic simulation of the system, the influence of key parameters on the dynamic response of the system can be studied. An experimental study is carried out to verify the design feasibility of the servo valve. The experimental results show that under the condition of no-load and full-scale input, the closed-loop delay of the servo valve is 1.84%, the linearity is 2.14%, the step response time is 43 ms, and the dynamic frequency response is 38 Hz. The newly developed 2D3WFFCSV has the advantages of high integration, small size, light weight (801.5 g) and high response and control accuracy. It can replace the constant differential pressure, metering valve and hydraulic servo valve in the aeroengine fuel regulator.     

Study of the tribological performance of a rare earth naphthenate as a lubricant additive

The tribological behaviour of a rare earth naphthenate (REN) as a lubricant oil additive in VG26 white oil and the complexes of REN and organo‐sulphur or organo‐phosphate compounds have been evaluated with a four‐ball friction and wear tester. The chemical features and elemental composition of the boundary lubricating film were examined by means of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X‐ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS). The results show that REN exhibits good antiwear, load‐carrying, and friction‐reducing properties in the base stock. When 2.0% REN is added, the wear‐scar diameter value reduces to 54.7% of that for the base stock alone and the maximum non‐seizure load increases 2.95 times. A synergistic effect is found for the load‐carrying capability of the complex of REN and organo‐sulphur while poor compatibility is exhibited for the complex of REN and organo‐phosphate. The analytical results of AES and XPS indicate that the good performance of REN is attributable to the formation of a boundary lubricating film mainly composed of naphthenic acid, rare earth oxide, and complexes of rare earth metals, which is formed on a rubbed surface when lubricated by oil containing the REN additive.