Topic: Flowmeter Technology Library

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This nifty resource helps you find anything and everything you need to know about flowmeters without having to endlessly surf the web. It provides descriptions and general information for all flowmeter technologies used in process control and automation applications, and allows you to view online intelligence reports, white papers, articles, and technical book abstracts on all things related to flow and the flowmeter instruments that control and measure it.

Flowmeters measure, monitor, regulate and control the flow of industrial gases and fluids. Flowmeters also measure other parameters of liquids and gases commonly used in the process controls and instrumentation industries and are typically chosen based upon the nature of the fluid being calibrated. Considerations for flowmeter selection include viscosity of the liquid, operating pressure, temperature, and flow rate, all of which must be measured in advance.

A flowmeter is a device that meters movement of fluid in a conduit or an open space. This fluid could be water, chemicals, air, gas, steam or solids. Some of the most common types of flow meters include Coriolis, magnetic, ultrasonic, vortex, turbine and multiphase. Flowmeters are made of several basic technologies. Each type has a niche but can generally be used for other applications as well.

Types of Flowmeters

Coriolis Flowmeters are twisting meters that are used to measure mass flow as opposed to volumetric flow. These meters are known for their accurate readings however their size is limiting.

Magnetic Flowmeters are generally used for water applications. They are limited to conductive fluids and they operate on a voltage generator.

Mass Flowmeters are designed for use in gas flows where pressure and temperature are variable. They measure flow rate in terms of the mass of the fluid substance and have units such as lbs/min.

Mass Gas Flowmeters are less affected by density, pressure, and fluid viscosity. They use differential pressure transducers and temperature sensors.

Multiphase Flowmeters are advanced types of flowmeters which accurately measure the flow rates of oil, gas, and water. These flowmeters don’t have any moving parts and cause no separation or mixing.

Positive Displacement Flowmeters are used to measure the flow rate of fluids in areas where straight piping is not possible.

Turbine Flowmeters are mainly used for both liquids and gas. They operate best for applications that have steady, high-speed flows.

Ultrasonic Flowmeters are effective for measuring natural gasses. These meters are non-intrusive and they have no pressure drop. It is important that ultrasonic flowmeters work on clean fluids.

Ultrasonic Doppler Flowmeters are used in slurries and wastewater applications. They use the Doppler effect principle to measure the flow rate.

Variable Area Flowmeters, more commonly known as Rotameters, are used to measure the linear flow of gases and clean liquids.

Velocity Flowmeters and flow sensors measure flow rate in terms of how quickly the gas or liquid is moving. Velocity meters use units like ft/sec.

Volumetric Flowmeters measure flow rate in terms of the quantity of material that is flowing and use units like mL/min.

Vortex Flowmeters are mainly used as an alternative to differential pressure flowmeters. These meters work best with clean, low-viscosity, medium to high speed fluids.

Vortex Shedding Flowmeters are suitable for water flow and coolant flow. They are not mechanical meters like positive displacement or turbine meters and do not hang up.

Flowmeter Research Library

An Introduction to Flowmeters
An educational resource for students, industrial technicians and buyers that are either new to flowmeters or who have some general background knowledge about them but wish to have a broader understanding of flowmeters.

Search related terms for flowmeters
Search with these words combined with flow meter to find alternate paths of research.

Search flowmeter specifications by product category
GlobalSpec offers a variety of flowmeters for engineers. Use SpecSearch to search for the exact flowmeter specifications needed.

Search industry links related to flowmeters
This directory provides links to associations and organizations, consultants and specialists, glossaries and reference tools, regulatory agencies and standards committees, and other industry sources.

Submit Articles on Flowmeter Technologies
CONTROL welcomes contributions from process automation professionals and controls engineers on anything to do with flowmeters that will help educate others.

Featured White Paper Using a Coriolis flowmeter’s multivariable characteristics to validate calibration stability This document describes a procedure that uses the multivarialbe capabilities of a flowmeter to provide an in-situ validation of flow calibration stability.

 

White Papers: In Depth Research

How A Biogas Processing System Manufacturer Identified the Best Flow Meter for Gas Measurement
Author: Fluid Components International, Achim Sprick, Managing Director, Klargastechnik Deutschland GmbH
Posted: 10/28/2010
Klargastechnik Deutschland GmbH's equipment and processes help customers address organic biomass fermentation and recovery while supporting electric power co-generation. The result is clean, green electric power that also reduces both solid waste and hazardous toxic gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which pollute the environment and contribute to global warming.

In order to provide these benefits, the company's equipment and systems rely on highly precise and reliable flow measurement of process waste gases. Measuring biogas flow at several points in the system provides operators with critical information for optimal gas production, control, safety and reporting. However, Biogas applications present several challenges in selecting the proper flow meter.

Download this application note to learn how a biogas processinf system manufacturer can identify the best flow meter for gas measurements.

Greenhouse Gas Flow Monitoring
Author: Fluid Components International, Allen Kugi, Member Technical Staff Fluid Components International (FCI)
Posted: 10/28/2010
Last year the EPA implemented new regulations entitled "Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases." The new regulations called for certain facilities emitting 25,000 metric tons or more per year of specified GHG's to provide an annual report of their actual GHG emissions.

It is estimated that more than 10,000 facilities in the US meet the criteria for mandated reporting of greenhouse gases. A full description of the EPA mandate can be found on the EPA's web site.

The EPA's reporting mandate comes in response to the goal of reducing warming gases in the atmosphere to address the consequences of global warming.

The EPA says the present objective of the mandate is simple reporting and is not about regulating the reduction of GHG at this time, although bloggers and industry pundits speculate this is likely the next step. It's doesn't require a stretch of logic to anticipate the data collected will frame new regulations to curb the release of GHG in response to domestic and international pressure to slow the rate of global warming.

The EPA's initial mandate in October of 2009 required 31 industry sectors that collectively equal 85 percent of US GHG emissions, to track and report their emissions. In addition to these original 31 industries, the agency in March of this year proposed to collect emissions data from the petroleum and natural gas sector, as well as from industries that emit fluorinated gases and from facilities that inject and store carbon dioxide underground for the purposes of geologic sequestration for enhanced oil and gas recovery.

Methane is the primary GHG emitted from oil and natural gas systems and is more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere, while fluorinated gases are even stronger and can stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years. The EPA says the data collected will allow businesses to track their own emissions, compare them to similar facilities, and identify cost effective ways to reduce their emissions in the future.

Sustainable Profitability
Author: Invensys, Peter G. Martin, PhD
Posted: 10/25/2010
Many industrial businesses and manufacturing operations were designed, implemented and operated around a set of basic assumptions that have served the industry well over the last century. For example, although it was expected that the values of process variables, such as flow, level, temperature and pressure, would naturally fluctuate in real time, business variables, such as production value, energy cost, and material cost were assumed to be fairly stable over long periods of time. It was also typically assumed that the production operations could effectively work independently from the business operations. Production operations would focus on making the products while business operations would focus on reporting results. This, in turn, led to a bottom-up business information flow perspective. Business information was used only for reporting results and only the required data from the operation had to be provided to the business reporting system. Often no business information flowed to the operations.

The traditional focus of industrial operations resulting from these assumptions has been on operational objectives, such as throughput and consumption of resources, as compared to business objectives. Typically, plants were designed to maximize production output, which proved to have the limited agility necessary to meet market demands during economic downturns.

Finally, the labor mindset of the industry resulting from the workforce dynamics of the early industrial revolution is, for the most part, still very much part of the standard operational philosophy utilized in today's industry. A huge separation continues to exist between the professional and management staffs from the operations and maintenance staffs that comprise today's labor force. This separation was necessary during the formative period of the industrial revolution when the available labor force was unskilled and almost completely uneducated. Although today's "labor force" is fairly well educated and highly skilled in comparison, the professional and management teams still tend to work under the traditional assumptions. For example, the operator interfaces of most industrial automation systems have been designed around a philosophy called operations by exception. Essentially this means that operators are to do nothing that impacts the plant unless an exception condition, an alarm or event occurs that requires human intervention. Once the event is addressed, operators can go back to doing nothing. This philosophy was developed to protect the plant from the uneducated and unskilled operators.

For the most part, these traditional industrial assumptions have served the industry quite well up to this point. However, there are current changes underway that are beginning to show that these traditional assumptions will not be effective going forward.

Flowmeters: Discussion of Flowmeter Accuracy Specifications
Author: Siemens
Posted: 01/25/2010
Understanding the accuracy of a given flowmeter is an important field but it can also be misleading as different specifications are used to explain how accurate a flowmeter measurement actually measures. This paper discusses the different specifications and interprets the impact of them.

Why deal with accuracy?

The reasons for dealing with flowmeter accuracy specifications are many-folded. One important reason is from an economical point of view. The more accurate a flowmeter can measure, the more money you will save as the medium is measured with only very little inaccurately.

E.g. If the medium is expensive such as oil, it is important to know exactly how much is consumed. This ensures it is being consumed as efficiently as possible. Another reason is in terms of dosing, where a given amount of a medium is added. This must be done with a high level of precision and the accuracy is thus important in order to dose correctly. This is critical in certain industries such as in pharma or chemical.

More White Papers »

Timeless Resources

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