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TRAINING MI199
Flow Measurement March 2014

GENERALITY

Direct Mass Flow-meters

A direct measure of the mass flow would be the
easiest for combustion control.
Mass-flow-meters could be:
‐ Thermal flow-meters,
Main drawback: requires a very stable flow
in order to be accurate, usually not
applicable on industrial furnaces (too long
straight pipes).
‐ Coriolis flow-meters
Main drawback: very costly

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Flow Measurement March 2014

Volume Flow-meters
The volume flow-meters are widely used on
industrial processes.
Volume flow-meters could be:
‐ Variable area flow-meters (Rotameter™)
‐ Electromagnetic flow-meters
‐ Ultrasonic flow-meters
‐ Differential pressure flow-meters (orifice
plate, Venturi tubes, …)
‐ ….
All these flow-meters give an m³/h value, which is
not enough to correctly control the combustion!
The combustion control requires a control of
“moles” (= mass control).
Consequently, the volume flow-meters measure
should be transformed into a mass flow value;
this is done by using the density:

→ the fluid density should be known, since the

density varies with the temperature and pressure,
both value should also be measured.

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Flow Measurement March 2014

Drever practice:
‐ The orifices are designed to measure the flow
referring to the “normal” conditions (Nm³/h),
the normal conditions are 0°C and 101325 Pa
(1013.25 mbar).
‐ By referring to predefined and fixed
conditions - fixed density - the flow value
(Nm³/h) is equivalent to a certain mass flow.
‐ Real fluid temperature and pressure should
be measured in order to convert the flow-
meter value into the corresponding Nm³/h.

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Flow Measurement March 2014

GAS DENSITY

Definition
The gas density is the weight of a certain volume
of gas; it is expressed in kg/m³; usual symbol is
“ρ”

Density variation with T° and Pr.

The density depends upon the quantity of gas
molecules.
For a same gas volume – 1 m³ – the quantity of
molecules varies with the pressure and
temperature:
‐ At high T°, the gas is expanded and 1 m³
contains less molecules than at lower T° →
ρ↓
‐ At high Pr, the gas is compressed and 1 m³
contains more molecules than at lower Pr →
ρ↑
‐ …

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Flow Measurement March 2014

To be representative, the gas density should

refer to certain T° & Pr “absolute values”.
Usual practice defines 2 references conditions:
‐ Normal conditions
0°C & 1 atmosphere
273 K & 101325 Pa
‐ Standard conditions
15 °C & 1 atmosphere
288 K & 101325 Pa

Drever documents usually refer to the normal

conditions (Nm³, Nm³/h, …)

Expression to convert the density

Conditions 1 refers to T1 and P1,
Conditions 2 refers to T2 and P2

∗ ∗

P & T in absolute values

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Flow Measurement March 2014

DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE FLOW-

METER:

Introduction
These flow-meters are widely used due to their
good price / accuracy ratio; moreover they are
based on simple pieces of equipment which do
not require continuous maintenance.
Two main designs are mainly used in industrial
applications:
‐ Restriction types (orifice plates, Venturis)
‐ Pitot tubes (Annubar™)

Only the restriction type is described here-after.

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Flow Measurement March 2014

Physical principle

‐ Fluid flow:
S1 = the internal pipe surface in front of the
orifice (m²)
S2 = the internal pipe surface in the orifice
(m²)
v1 = the fluid speed mean value in front of
the orifice (m/s)
v2 = the fluid speed mean value in the
orifice (m/s)
Q = the fluid flow = S*v1 = S2*v2 (m³/s)

The difficulty is to measure v1 & v2

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Flow Measurement March 2014

‐ At any location of the stream, the fluid

“mechanical” energy is equal to the total
pressure:

Pdynamic is the pressure exerted by the fluid
velocity, it is measured in a direction
parallel to the fluid movement; ∗
∗
Pstatic is the pressure exerted by fluid onto
the pipe wall, it is measured in a direction
perpendicular to the fluid movement.

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Flow Measurement March 2014

‐ The restriction inserted into the stream creates

an acceleration of the fluid, by applying the
principle of “energy conservation” we may write:

1 1 2 2

1 2 2 1 ∆
∆ ∗ ∗ )

1
∆ ∗ ∗ ∗ 1
2
2∗∆ 1
∗
1
∗ ∗ √∆

Base on that theoretical equation, construction

norms (ISO 5167, ANSI 2530, ….) defines the
design rules to take into account the real fluids
characteristics (exact position of “1” and “2”,
S1/S2 acceptable ratio, variation of density ….).

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