Experimental investigation of a cavitating Venturi and its application to flow metering

An experimental investigation has been carried out to evaluate the performance of a cavitating Venturi flow. For that purpose, a closed loop circuit with a centrifugal pump and a transparent asymmetric converging-diverging test section has been built which allows to set the pressure level and the flow rate. The system is instrumented with several pressure sensors and temperature probes that are continuously monitored during the tests. The experiments have consisted in generating non-cavitating and cavitating flows inside the Venturi under controlled conditions. The obtained results, which have been characterized as a function of the Venturi's discharge coefficient, pressure ratio and pressure loss coefficient, are in good agreement with previous studies carried out with standard Venturi geometries, specially under non-cavitating flows. The Venturi's performance under cavitation flows has been found to be dependent on the Venturi's inlet pressure and similar to a chocked flow condition with constant volumetric flow rate. On the basis of these observations and the analogous behaviour with compressible gas nozzles, a new flow coefficient has been derived which remains constant at any cavitating regime. Thus, this coefficient permits to use a Venturi as a flow meter on cavitation conditions.     

Flow structure in critical flow Venturi nozzle and its effect on the flow rate

The flow fields in toroidal Venturi-nozzles, shaped according to the ISO-9300 Standard, have been investigated using numerical flow simulation. The present study was aimed at clarifying some of the phenomena associated with unchoking the flow in the throat. To this end, the shock structure has been studied for different Reynolds numbers and exit pressure ratios. The flow simulations were carried out in two and three dimensions. The flow fields were always unsteady, displaying a complex shock–boundary layer interaction.     

A new correlation of wet gas flow for low pressure with a vertically mounted Venturi meter

Wet gas metering has become an increasingly important technique for many industries. However, the over-reading phenomenon reduces the accuracy of Differential Pressure meters. This research fills the vacancy of correlations and presents a new correlation for low pressure between 0.82 and 1.52 MPa with a vertically mounted Venturi meter to calculate the over-reading coefficient accurately. Based on the correlational analysis, the over-reading coefficient is a function of the Lockhart-Martinelli parameter, density ratio, and gas Froude number. The constant coefficients in this correlation are obtained by nonlinear regression. Effect of low gas velocity with gas Froude number under 1.5 is taken into consideration as well. The average relative error is 1.9% and the root mean square error is 3.0%. Furthermore, a new method to calculate the over-reading coefficient for industrial applications is put forward due to the difficulties of online measurements of the Lockhart-Martinelli parameter which is substituted with the void fraction. The void fraction is calculated by an empirical correlation using quality and an approximate algorithm is utilized to obtain gas Froude number. For this new method, the average relative error is 2.3% and the root mean square error is 3.7%. This quality-based method will be helpful to resolve the limited applicability of gamma-ray attenuation for wet gas flow metering in industry regarding vertical low pressure conditions.     

Analysis of high pressure tests on wet gas flow metering with a Venturi meter

This work deals with the flow metering of wet gas issued from high pressure natural reservoirs. Some recent results obtained from tests performed on the CEESI facilities are presented. They are performed at 75 bar with 0.6 beta ratio Venturi meter installed in horizontal pipe configuration. Correction factors obtained are compared to predictions deduced from the flow modelling inside of the meter. These results are analysed in order to explain the agreements or disagreements obtained between the experiments and the flow modelling.     

Development of a transfer standard with sonic Venturi nozzles for small mass flow rates of gases

We have developed a transfer standard system with sonic Venturi nozzles for small mass flow rates of gases. The system is composed of a newly developed automatic pressure controller, two pressure sensors and one temperature sensor to measure the flow conditions in the upstream and downstream sides of a nozzle. The whole system is packed in a portable aluminum trunk. The data are sent to a laptop computer, and the results are displayed on the screen and are written to files. The system can calibrate a flow meter in the flow rate range from 10 mg/min to 100 g/min using ten different sonic Venturi nozzles with the expanded standard uncertainty (k=2) being less than 0.2% for nitrogen. Examples of mass flow controller calibrations are given.     

Turbulent heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide in square cross-sectional duct flow

Numerical simulations are performed to develop a new heat transfer coefficient correlation applicable to the gas cooler design of a trans-critical carbon dioxide air-conditioner. Thermodynamic and transport properties of the supercritical gas cooling process change dramatically and significantly vary heat transfer coefficients to be much different from those of single or two phase flows. In the present study, the elliptic blending second moment turbulent closure precisely reflecting the effects of these thermo-physical property variations on the turbulent heat transfer is employed to model the Reynolds stresses and turbulent heat fluxes in the momentum and energy equations. Computational results related to the development of turbulent heat transfer during in-duct cooling of supercritical carbon dioxide were used to establish a new heat transfer coefficient correlation that would be widely applicable to a gas cooler design involving turbulent heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide in square cross-sectional duct flows. This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Kyung-Soo Yang Seong Ho, Han received a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kookmin University in 2003. He then went on to receive his M.S. degree from Korea University in 2005. He is currently in a Ph. D. course at Mechanical Engineering at Korea University in Seoul, Korea. His research interests are in the area of hydrogen energy, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell.     

超临界CO_2萃取胡萝卜中胡萝卜素的研究

本文对胡萝卜中胡萝卜素的超临界CO2提取条件进行研究。分别对不同压力、 温度及夹带剂等几个影响因素进行试验。确定了最佳提取条件为压力5000psi(340大气 压),温度60℃,二氧化碳流量1.5L/min,时间4h。     

The humidity effect on air flow rates in a critical flow venturi nozzle

A Critical Flow Venturi Nozzle (CFVN) is usually calibrated using dry air. Yet CFVNs in industrial and calibration service centers are often used to measure flow rates of humid air. Therefore, ISO 9300 provides the calculation method for the humidity effect on discharge coefficients of CFVN. However, since this method is only due to a theoretical analysis, it is important to confirm and check the ISO calculation method for the humidity effect on CFVN with its isentropic analysis by means of an experimental method.In this experiment, three CFVNs with diameters of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mm were calibrated with dry air (with the dew point −40 °C), in a primary air flow standard system with a mercury sealed piston prover, installed at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS). Another piston prover, a portable dry piston prover, was used as a reference meter and was also calibrated in the primary standard system using dry air. The repeatability of this dry piston prover was confirmed with the deviation being less than 0.05%. The CFVNs were tested with this dry piston prover, using humid air. For air types with high humidity, the humidity effect on flow rates through the CFVNs showed quite significant difference between the experimental results and those from the ISO method with isentropic analysis. But for air types with low humidity, its effect was relatively insignificant.     

Horizontally installed cone differential pressure meter wet gas flow performance

Differential pressure (DP) meters which utilise a cone as the system’s primary element are increasingly being used to measure wet natural gas flows (i.e. mixtures of natural gas, light hydrocarbon liquids and water). It is therefore important to understand this meter’s response to wet natural gas flows. Research into the wet gas response of the horizontally installed cone DP meter is discussed in this paper. Consideration is given to the significant influence of the liquid properties on wet gas flow patterns and the corresponding influence of the flow pattern on the cone DP meter’s liquid phase induced gas flow rate prediction error. A wet natural gas flow correlation for 4 in. 0.75 beta ratio cone DP meters with natural gas, hydrocarbon liquid and water flow has been developed from multiple data sets from three different wet gas flow test facilities. This corrects the liquid induced gas flow rate prediction error of a wet gas flow up to a Lockhart–Martinelli parameter of 0.3, for a known liquid flow rate of any hydrocarbon liquid/water ratio, to ±4% at a 95% confidence level.     

Novel mass air flow meter for automobile industry based on thermal flow microsensor. II. Flow meter,test procedures and results

A prototype of mass air flow meter for automobile industry was developed on the basis of thermal flow microsensor. Design and manufacturing technology of the flow meter are described. Test procedure and results are presented. Developed prototype of flow meter can diagnose gas flow rates in a wide range.     

超临界CO2环境下线路板分层机理的模拟与分析

建立线路板试样的有限元模型,利用有限元分析软件ANSYS8.0对超临界CO2环境下的线路板内应力分布及大小进行模拟分析,计算出树脂层的最大剪切应力和最大剥离应力的大小并分析其变化规律,据此推测内应力在线路板分层破坏中的作用及破坏机理,并将分析结果与实验结果对比,以优化回收工艺过程参数.     

Application of small size cavitating venturi as flow controller and flow meter

The cavitating venturi is using to provide constant mass flow rate of liquid which is passing through a passage, independent of downstream pressure changes. The flow rate is a function of the upstream pressure, the throat area, the density and saturation pressure of the liquid. An experimental setup with capability of supplying water flow rate and constant upstream pressure was designed and manufactured. Three cavitating venturis with throat diameter of 5, 2.5, and 1 mm were designed and built to investigate the effect of venturi size on its mass flow rate. Three different sets of experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the venturis. In the experiments, the mass flow rates were examined under different downstream and upstream pressure conditions and time varying downstream pressure. The results show for the ratio of downstream pressure to upstream pressure less than 0.8, the mass flow rate is constant and independent of the downstream pressure. Whenever the pressure ratio exceeds 0.8, the venturi acts like an orifice. This pressure ratio has been predicted analytically to highlight the affecting parameters, mainly the geometry of the venturi and viscous losses. It is found that the venturi size has no effect on its expecting function to keep mass flow rate constant. Also, it is shown that by applying a discharge coefficient and using only upstream pressure, the cavitating venturi can be used as a flowmeter with a high degree of accuracy in a wide range of mass flow rate.     

Model analysis for differential pressure two-phase flow rate meter in intermittent flow

Multiphase flow rate metering is a challenging problem, specially for flow patterns other than wet-gas. This paper brings forward a new comparative analysis of three differential pressure calibration models suited for liquid dominated two-phase flows, in a total of seven model configurations. First, the models are compared theoretically and classified in terms of the type of input data required. Then, experimental data of over 300 horizontal air–water experiments, for $1$” and $2$” pipe diameters, supports quantitative analyses of the prediction accuracies and sensitivity of the superficial velocities of gas and liquid to measurement errors in the model input variables. Finally, a method for assessing the decoupled measurement errors for the void fraction and gas velocity is shown, as these variables are typically subject to higher uncertainties. It results that, though the void fraction is shown to be systematically under evaluated in more than 10%, the total mass flow rate is estimated through the Paz et al. (2010) model with an overall root mean squared deviation (RMSD) of 5.75% for the $2$” data. Also, the use of gas velocity measurements, even if subject to considerable errors, decreased the RMSD for the gas superficial velocity by more than half for the $1$” data.     

Numerical simulations for multi-hole orifice flow meter

The measurement of flow rate is important in many industrial applications including rocket propellant stages. The orifice flow meter has the advantages of compact size and weight. However, the conventional single-hole orifice flow meter suffers from higher pressure drop due to lower discharge coefficient (Cd). This can be overcome by the use of multi-hole orifice flow meter. Flow characteristics of multi-hole orifice flow meters are determined both numerically and experimentally over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the flow in the single- and multi-hole orifice flow meters. Experiments are carried out to validate the CFD predictions. The discharge coefficients for the different orifice configurations are determined from the CFD simulations. It is observed that the pressure loss in the multi-hole orifice flow meter is significantly lower than that of single-hole orifice flow meter of identical flow area due to the early reattachment of flow in the case of the multi-hole orifice meter. The influence of different geometrical and flow parameters on discharge coefficient is also determined.     

Rectangle-gap-type laminar flow meter with inward pressure taps

The entrance/exit effects in the current traditional LFMs (Laminar Flow Meter) are unavoidable. LFMs are often designed with a large length-diameter ratio l/d and the consequence is a large pressure loss. A rectangle-gap-type LFM with a laminar flow channel made from the groove between two cubes is proposed and investigated experimentally. The pressure taps located inward the inlet/outlet of the channel replace the original pressure taps that located at the inlet/outlet of channel, so that the rectangle-gap-type LFM can measure the pressure drop from the developed laminar flow to avoid the entrance/exit effects. The results show that the linearity of the rectangle-gap-type LFM is 0.35% for the length-diameter ratio l/d_h=93.5. The deviations are −0.35%~+1.30% in the pressure range 100–500 kPa. The estimated pressure loss coefficients (ζ_ent+ζ_exit) of rectangle-gap-type LFM are only 0.15–0.2, which of traditional LFMs are used to be 1.5. The inward pressure taps allow rectangle-gap-type LFM to adopt a small l/d_h design to achieve low pressure loss measurement. The investigation is of positive significance for improving the performance of LFM.     

Data-based estimation and simulation of compressible pulsating flow with reverse-flow through an orifice

Highly compressible pulsating flows are often encountered in devices where knowledge of the flow rate is required but elimination of pulsations is not an option. The current work is a continuation of a previous investigation that characterized the orifice discharge coefficient C_d as a function of dimensionless groups based on pulsation characteristics. The experimental apparatus has been rebuilt in the current work to mitigate temperature and vibration problems, allowing pressure and ΔP measurements to be made very close to the test section with 159-mm of nylon tubing. Data was acquired for 77 operating conditions spanning a range of pulsation frequencies, mass flow rates and system pressures. They confirm previously reported low C_d's in 0.20 range (calculated from time-averaged pressures) at some high-pressure low-flow operating conditions. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of 12 of these data points suggest that the low C_d's result from reverse flow. Flow direction changed several times during each pulsation cycle closely tracking the orifice ΔP. A ‘core-and-sheath’ phenomena was observed for reverse-flow operating conditions: a positive core flow surrounded by a sheath of negative flow transitioned to a negative core and positive sheath several times during each pulsation cycle. The simulations also suggested that velocity profiles at the orifice stay stable and similar to steady-state profiles except for periods of rapid transitions. Based on these results a data-based quasi-steady method of estimating pulsating flow has been proposed. A pair of forward and reverse flow C_d's chosen by the data are used to predict instantaneous forward and reverse flows using the steady-state orifice discharge equation for compressible flow. The instantaneous values are then summed up over the pulsation cycle to estimate average mass flow rate. Average prediction errors were within 6%. A previously proposed method where regression was used to model C_d as a function of dimensionless groupings was shown to produce similar results. Both methods are designed to extract information from experimental data in order to overcome theoretical limitations and experimental error. The data is available upon request for further understanding of the flow physics.     

Experimental analysis of the behaviour of a Venturi meter submitted to an upstream air/oil annular liquid film

The aim of this work is to study the response of a Venturi meter submitted to an annular two phase flow where the liquid phase contains simultaneously water and oil. After a literature survey on the oil/water/gas flow in pipes, this paper presents the results of an experimental analysis performed at low pressure on a vertical downward pipe configuration. In a first step the structure of the liquid film is described from visual observations using high speed video records. Relationship between the two liquids inside of the film structure is enhanced. Inversion phenomena described in the literature are observed for given fraction of water in the liquid phase (known as the water cut). In a second step, the analysis of the atomisation of the liquid inside of the Venturi meter is presented. No preferential atomisation of one of the two liquid is observed. The results obtained clearly show the influence of the water cut on the atomisation rate and confirm the influence of the inversion phenomenon. They also indicate the link between the atomisation process and the deviation in the gas mass flow rate deduced from differential pressure measurements.     

Prediction of pressure drop in Venturi based on drift-flux model and boundary layer theory

Venturi, as the primary flow measurement sensor, is widely used in various industrial fields of oil and natural gas. Pressure drop of the Venturi is a crucial factor in the process design of exploitation and transportation of natural gas. Based on the drift-flux model and boundary layer theory, a pressure drop prediction model is established. Except for divergent section, a uniform void fraction model is established basing on drift-flux model. The thickness of boundary layer grows rapidly due to the existence of adverse pressure gradient in the divergent section, which results in an increase of the irrecoverable pressure drop. Considering the influence of slip between gas and liquid, weight coefficient is used to adjust the proportion of displacement thickness in the cross section of the Venturi. Compared to experiment, the theoretical model is applied to stratified wavy flow and annular mist flow. For different diameter, the relative deviations of experiment points are within ±15%.     

Wet gas overreading characteristics of a long-throat Venturi at high pressure based on CFD

Based on the operational conditions of the PetroChina Southwest Oil & Gas well field, this study aims to explore the wet gas flow overreading (OR) characteristics of a nonstandard long-throat Venturi by the means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. The studied prototype structure size is an inner diameter of 50 mm, a diameter ratio of 0.4 and a throat length of 50 mm. According to the field experiment, the simulation pressure is 3 MPa gauge. Through a comparative study of the multiphase flow models and turbulence models, combined with the analysis of the Baker׳s flow regime and interparticle space under the field conditions, this paper eventually employed DPM model and Eulerian model for wet gas simulation, respectively, and RSM for turbulence model. An equivalent droplet diameter adjustment method was implemented to improve the precision of prediction. During post-processing, the liquid phase distributions and the wall pressure profiles were investigated. The numerical results indicate that the differential pressure in convergent section of long-throat Venturi by using DPM model is less than that by using Eulerian model, and the differential pressures in the divergent section by using the two models are analogous. Afterwards, the OR prediction correlations based on the differential pressure ratio method were proposed, and then compared and validated by the industrial field tests. The root mean square errors (RMSE) and the average relative errors predicted by Eulerian model were 4.24% and 3.78%, 5.69% and 5.01% by using DPM model, respectively. In conclusion, Eulerian model is more suitable for wet gas flow prediction. And some advice on the improvement of the multiphase flow simulation is provided to get a more preferable performance in wet gas flow prediction.     

差压式流量传感器测量一般气体流量时的温度压力补偿方法

简要介绍使用差压式流量传感器进行一般气体流量测量时的温压补偿方法;指出了差压方式流量传感器测量一般气体的通用流量温压补偿公式,并写出了公式的推导过程;与线性流量传感器温压补偿方法进行对比,强调指出了采用差压式流量传感器时进行温压补偿的注意要点.对公用工程中的一般气体的流量计量工作有一定的指导作用.