Faculty of Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering

Bellville Campus

REPORT TITLE: VOLUMETRIC FLOW MEASUREMENTS

Name

: Mziyanda

Subject

: Process Control III

Surname

: Shumi

Issued date

: 26 August 2016

Student number

: 215232712

Due date

: 12 September 2016

Title page
Table of Content
List of symbols
Structure
Executive Summary
Introduction
Theory
Procedure
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Bibliography
Total

%
1
3
2
2
5
5
15
10
25
25
5
2
100

Mark

Declaration:
I certify that this report is my own unaided work, except for the assistance received
by the teaching staff. I undertake not to pass this report on to any other student.
Date: _______________

Signed: _______________

Nomenclature

Letter

Explanation

Units

Volumetric Flow rate

m3/s

Volume

m3

Time

Density

Kg.m-3

Viscosity

Pa.s

Executive Summary
In centrifugal pump circuit, a practical was conducted to comprehend how various
instruments for measuring volumetric flow operate. A rota-meter was used as a primary
instrument to measure the inlet flow rate of water entering the tank. The rota-meter captures
the flow-rate in an m3/hr. scale. During the practical the manipulated input flow rate was
allowed to pass through a rota-meter to record the actual volumetric flow rate to the tank,
furthermore also the volumetric flow rate entering the tank at atmospheric pressure was
measured with use of a bucket and time taken to fill up the bucket. The water on the bucket
was then transferred to a volumetric cylinder for an accurate volume. With the volume and
time measured using different instruments, a measured volumetric flow rate was found, In
addition this experiment was done in fully-open valve and half-open valve.

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Table of Contents
Nomenclature............................................................................................................ i
Executive Summary................................................................................................... ii
1.

Introduction........................................................................................................ 1
1.1.

Background................................................................................................. 1

2.

Theory.............................................................................................................. 4

3.

Procedure.......................................................................................................... 5

4.

Results.............................................................................................................. 6

5.

Discussion......................................................................................................... 9

6.

Conclusion...................................................................................................... 10

7.

Sample Calculations......................................................................................... 11

8.

Bibliography..................................................................................................... 12

iii

1. Introduction
1.1.

Background

Instrumentation is the development or use of measuring instruments for observation,

monitoring or control. An instrument is a device that measures a physical quantity, such
as flow, temperature, level, distance, angle, or pressure. Instruments may be as simple
as direct reading hand-held thermometers or as complex as multi-variable process
analysers. Although instrumentation is often used to measure and control process
variables within a laboratory or manufacturing area, it can be found in the household as
well. A smoke detector is one example of a common instrument found in many homes
(Katz et al. 2002).
This practical was operated on a centrifugal pump circuit. Centrifugal pumps are the
most common type of kinetic pump, and are mostly often used in applications with
moderate-to-high flow and low head. As the workhorse of the chemical process
industries (CPI), centrifugal are almost always more economical to own, to operate and
maintain than other types of pumps (Kimberly, 2002).
The purposes of this experiment to educate how various instruments for measuring
volumetric flow operate, a rota-meter which is a flow meter that measures volumetric flow
of liquids and gases is going to be used. The advantages of rota-meters include no
external power requirements, its easier to read, also simple to install and maintain, see
figure 1.

Figure 1: An Example of a Rota-meter (Anon, 2016).

Additionally volumetric measuring containers such as bucket and volumetric cylinder and
Stopwatch will be used to determine the volumetric flow-rate of the water entering the tank in
the centrifugal circuit see figure 2 and 3.

[ ]
V

Lastly Q= t

, the formula to be used for calculations of flow rate.

Figure 2: A Centrifugal Pump used in the lab.

Figure 3: The Volumetric cylinder with stopwatch (Rattvikracing, 2016).

2

Figure 4: A simple schematic diagram of centrifugal circuit.

2. Theory
Flow measurement is the quantification of bulk fluid movement. Flow can be measured in a
variety of ways. Positive-displacement flow meters accumulate a fixed volume of fluid and
then count the number of times the volume is filled to measure flow. Other flow
measurement methods rely on forces produced by the flowing stream as it overcomes a
known constriction, to indirectly calculate flow. Flow may be measured by measuring the
velocity of fluid over a known area.
Both gas and liquid flow can be measured in volumetric or mass flow rates, such as liters per
second or kilograms per second, respectively. These measurements are related by the
material's density. The density of a liquid is almost independent of conditions. This is not the
case for gases, the densities of which depend greatly upon pressure, temperature and to a
lesser extent, composition.
When gases or liquids are transferred for their energy content, as in the sale of natural gas,
the flow rate may also be expressed in terms of energy flow, such as GJ/hour or BTU/day.
The energy flow rate is the volumetric flow rate multiplied by the energy content per unit
volume or mass flow rate multiplied by the energy content per unit mass. Energy flow rate is
usually derived from mass or volumetric flow rate by the use of a flow computer (Furness,
Richard A .1989).

In engineering contexts, the volumetric flow rate is usually given the symbol Q , and the
mass flow rate, the symbol

m
.For a fluid having density

rates may be related by

, mass and volumetric flow

3. Procedure

1. The compressor was started allowing the pressure to build up to its set point.
2. All the devises for measuring the flow-rate were switched on.
3. The pump was started and the flow-rate adjusted remotely by adjusting the valve to a
setting of fully open scale deflection.
4. The flow-rate was monitored until the flow-rate had stabilised.
5. A volumetric measuring containers (bucket and volumetric cylinder) and Stopwatch
were used to determine the volumetric flow-rate.
6. This was repeated few times for determination of flow-rates which were do differ.
7. The steps from 1-6 were repeated for different settings on the valve from fully open to
the one turned twice.
8. Finally the system was shut down by first closing the valve then the pump, and
shutting down the power to the compressor and the various meters.

4. Results
Table 1: Results measured for fully open globe valve.
Rota-meter Flow rate

Measured volume

Time taken (s)

(m3/hr.)
5.2
6.0
6.2
6.8
7.6

(ml)
4440
5260
4770
4938
4640

2.52
3.60
2.66
2.44
2.31

Table 2: Results measured for turned times globe valve.

Rota-meter Flow rate
3

(m /hr.)
3
4
4.7
5.7
6.5

Measured volume

Time taken (s)

(ml)
1440
1598
818
940
2190

1.47
1.34
0.70
0.61
1.36

Table 3: The initial height of water in the tank

Initial Height of tank

440 m

Table 4: Recorded and calculated volumetric flow rate of a fully open valve.
No.
1
2
3
4
5

Actual (m3/hr.)
5.2
6.0
6.2
6.8
7.6

Measured (m3/hr.)
6.34
5.26
6.44
6.70
7.23

Table 5: Recorded and calculated volumetric flow rate of the turned twice valve.
No.
1
2
3
4
5

Actual (m3/hr.)
3
4
4.7
5.7
6.5

Measured (m3/hr.)
5.18
4.29
4.21
5.55
5.80

FLOW RATE VS NO. OF RUNS

8
7
6
5

Flow rate (m3/hr)

4
3
2
1
0
0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

4.5

5.5

Number of runs
Actual (m3/hr.)

Measured (m3/hr.)

Figure 5: Graph of the fully open valve

FLOW RATE VS NO. OF RUNS

7
6
5
4

Flow rate (m3/hr)

3
2
1
0
0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

Number of runs
Actual (m3/hr.)

Measured (m3/hr.)

Figure 6: The graph of the two times turned valve.

4.5

5.5

5. Discussion

In an experiment done on the lab for to determine how the various types of instruments
operate in a centrifugal pump circuit, a rota-meter was used as primary measuring
instrument. By constantly manipulating the flow, the rota-meter kept on reading the feed flow
rate of water. The operation on the centrifugal pump circuit was done twice, for fully open
globe valve the first time, and for the second time the valve was turned twice to distinguish
what change will occur in the flow rates.
The results were obtained, proving that the rota-meter is more accurate than the other way
of measuring the volumetric flow rate. In terms of fluctuations also the flow rates of rotameter gave the best results, and as for the other measuring way of finding the flow rates, the
results due to fluctuation were inaccurate, see figure 4 and figure 5.
Coming to the valves, for the fully open globe valve, the flow rates obtained were higher than
those of the globe valve which was turned twice in direction of closing. The reason for the
decreasing flow rate is because of the size of the gap allowing water to flow through the
piping system has also decreased hence the flow also has deceased, an example could be
the tap, whereby when controlling the valve also the flow keeps on changing.
The results obtained also were correct, nevertheless the fluctuation and inaccuracy could
have been caused by the instruments used when filling water into the bucket, and then
transferring the same water into a volumetric cylinder in order to obtain a volume. The water
must have been spilled and the other thing could be how accurate the time and volume were
captured during the operation.

6. Conclusion
The experiment was successfully, the aim of enlightening how various instruments operate
when measuring flow was clear and also noticeable that some measuring instruments are
more accurate than others, as in this case the Rota-meter was against volumetric cylinder
with stopwatch. The recommendations of this experiment can be, if it can be done for more
runs and when filling the bucket, it must be removed carefully to avoid spillage or other
slightly more accurate instrument can be used.

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7. Sample Calculations
Conversion of volume

4440 ml=4440 cm3

4440 cm3
m3
1
( 100 cm )3
3

4.44 x 10 m

Volumetric flow rate measured of a fully open valve.

Q=

V
t

4440 c m

m
1 Min
3
( 100 cm ) 2.52 s

0.00176 m3 / s

0.00176 m 60 s 60 min
s
1.0 min 1 hr

5.26 m /hr

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8. Bibliography
1. Nordicscientific.com. (2016). [online] Available at: http://nordicscientific.com /975.jpg
[Accessed 10 Sep. 2016].
2. Katz, Eric; Light, Andrew; Thompson, William (2002). Controlling technology:
contemporary issues (2nd Ed.). Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. Retrieved 9
March 2016.
3. PERRY, R. H., GREEN, D. W. and MALONEY, J. O. (Eds) (1997) Perrys Chemical
Engineers Handbook, 7th edn. New York. McGraw-Hill.
4. Furness, Richard A. (1989). Fluid flow measurement. Harlow: Longman in
association with the Institute of Measurement and Control. p. 21.

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