Engineering Physics, McMaster University

4L04 Lab

LAB #5 Introduction

Coriolis Mass Flow Meter and HART Data Communication

by Barry Diacon

The coriolis mass flowmeter is a device which naturally measures mass flow rate directly rather than indirectly th rough measurement of volumetric flow rate or linear flow velocity. Measuring mass directly eliminates perturbations due to pressure, temperature, viscosity, electrical conductivity, or flow profile. It also removes the need to convert from volumetric flow rate to the more desirable mass flow value. Other mass flow measuring methods require the simultaneous measurement of temperature and pressure to perform a mass flow calculation. The great precision of the coriolis-based meter has led it to be used extensively for so-called custodial applications requiring accurate transfer of measured quantities of liquid material. In many industrial settings signals must survive intact in an electrically noisy environment. Data transmitted by analog voltage levels is susceptible to this noise distortion, especially over long signal paths. With many devices, wiring becomes complex. The HART communication system is one of many standards used to send engineering data from a uniquely addressed remote measurement device to a home computer. This laboratory studies both the coriolis mass flow meter and the HART system of data communication.

Theory of the Coriolis Mass Flow Meter

The coriolis effect is named after Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis who described it in 1835. The coriolis force is not a separate force. It is an apparent deflection of a moving object in a rotating frame of reference. It is really a manifestation of inertia, or Newtons first law of motion. The term coriolis effect is most often encountered in meteorology as an explanation for the counterclockwise rotation of hurricanes in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. In a garden hose with an established flow of water, a rotation of the hose will produce twisting, as the flow resists the change in momentum. The coriolis mass flow meter consists of a flexible tube in which a harmonic vibration is e stablished. The movement of fluid through this oscillating tube causes it to distort. In Fig. 5.1 the rotational motion of the tube with angular velocity is accompanied by a force F acting on a particle of fluid with a reaction force Fr c acting on the tube wall.

Figure 5.1: Forces on moving fluid-filled tube

Figure 5.2: Schematic of sensing tube with electromagnetic sensors A and B.

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In the schematic shown in Fig. 5.2, the harmonic oscillation is established by means of magnetic driving coils in the centre of the tube. The inertia of the fluid particles generates Coriolis force s F c as they are accelerated between the inlet of the tube and the centre and are then decelerated from the centre to the outlet. These forces cause the oscillation to dampen on the inlet side of the tube (sensor A) and to accelerate on the outlet side (sensor B). Alternatively, it can be said that the inlet side lags the oscillation, and the outlet side precedes the oscillation. This twisting of the oscillation is shown in Fig. 5.3 with the detail of the forces on the tube.

Figure 5.3: Differential displacement of tube, with attendant coriolis forces, Fc.

The twisting of the oscillation causes a differential dis placement measured by the two sensing coils seen in Fig. 5.2. Each of the sensing coils outputs a sine wave corresponding to the harmonic oscillation of the tube. The differential displacement of the two coils causes a phase shift between these two sine waves. The signals from the sensors are displayed in Fig. 5.4 (no flow) and Fig. 5.5 (with flow). The phase shift is proportional to the amount of the distortion in the tube and this is proportional to the mass flow rate of the fluid travelling through it.

Figure 5.4: Signals from two sensors in the case of No flow.

Figure 5.5: Signals from the two sensors in the case of fluid flow are overlapped showing the phase shift.

Earlier designs of coriolis flow meters, and continuing in some current models, have two long U-shaped tubes. Each U-tube balances the vibration of the other. These require a flow splitter and produce more pressure drop than the single straight tube designs. In the single straight tube design, the vibration of the fluid-carrying tube is balanced by the counter movement of a shell tube containing the sensors and the driver coil. All of this is enclosed in an outer cylinder, causing the coriolis meter to be rather large compared to many other flow measuremen t techniques. A detailed schematic of the Krohne Coriolis tube used in this lab is seen in Fig. 5.6.

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Figure 5.6: Schematic of Krohne Coriolis Flowmeter Tube. The preferred construction material for the tube is titanium due to its flexing characteristics. However, due to requirements of the food service industry, models are now available where the tube is made of stainless steel. The density of the fluid can simultaneously be determined by measuring deviations from the natural oscillating frequency of the tube. If the tube, as in Fig. 5.7, is thought of as a spring k, filled with a fluid having density , then the frequency of oscillation is:

f =

1 2

or: f 1

Fluid with a lower density produces a higher frequency and vice versa. The frequency can be measured by observing the period. Values for an air-filled tube and a pure water-filled tube are stored in the device electronics. Experimental observation has shown that the fluid density is linearly related to the tube period squared. The frequency of the tube with no fluid flow depends on the size of the tube and could be from 80 to 1000 Hz. The above explanation could also be done with a mass, m, on the end of the spring, but the volume of the tube is constant, so mass measurement leads directly to density. This measurement of fluid density allows the measured mass flow values to be converted to volumetric flow values. These calculations may be less accurate if the flow contains bubbles, thus causing the density to vary. Of course, the mass flow rate will vary by the same amount on a

Figure 5.7: Tube as spring k with density ? and frequency f. dynamic basis.

The coriolis mass flow meter measures multiple values: mass flow and mass total, density and concentration, volumetric flow and volume total, and temperature. The temperature is measured by an internal

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sensor, usually an RTD, mounted directly on the tube. The temperature value is needed for calculations of k where temperature influences the rigidity of the tube and, therefore, its natural frequency.

Theory of the HART system

HART is an acronym for Highway Addressable Remote Transducer. The HART system is the simplest of a number of industrial communication technologies collected under the general rubric of FIELD bus.

HART represents a set of digitally-encoded values transmitted over a 4 to 20 mA current loop. Since the HART signal is low in amplitude and in the form of sine waves, it can be used simultaneously with the analog current signal which is the original function of the 4-to-20mA current loop. A HART 1" is represented by a 1200 Hz mini-burst; a 0" is represented by a 2200 Hz mini-burst. Since most industrial noise is amplitude-related, the frequency encoding of the digital information is relatively noise immune. The average net current of the HART signal is 0, floating on the analog signal, so, the impact on the information contained in the analog current loop is minimal and can be eliminated by smoothing after the HART signal is extracted.

Figure 5.8: Components of digitally-encoded HART signal embedded within analog 4-20 mA current loop signal.

HART messages are sent in packets. The structure of a HART message packet is shown in Fig. 5.9 and are described further in the following table.

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Figure 5.9: Components of a HART message packet.

Segment Preamble

Description Between 5 to 20 bytes of hex FF (i.e. all 1"s). This helps the receiver to synchronise to the character stream. The start character may have one of several values, indicating the type of message: master to slave, slave to master, or burst message from slave; also the address format: short frame or long frame. The address field includes both the master address and the slave address. The Master address is a single bit: 1 for a primary master, 0 for a secondary master. In the short frame format, the Slave address is 4 bits containing the "polling address" (0 to 15). In the long frame format, it is 38 bits containing a "unique identifier" for that particular device. (One bit is also used to indicate if a slave is in burst mode.) The command byte contains the HART command for this message. Universal commands are in the range 0 to 30; common practice commands are in the range 32 to 126; device-specific commands are in the range 128 to 253. The byte count byte contains the number of bytes to follow in the status and data bytes. The receiver uses this to know when the message is complete. (There is no special "end of message" character.) The status field (also known as the "response code") is two bytes. It is present only in the response message from a slave device. It contains information about communication errors in the outgoing message, the status of the received command, and the status of the device itself. The data field may or may not be present, depending on the particular command. A maximum length of 25 bytes is recommended, to keep the overall message duration reasonable. (However, some devices have device-specific commands using longer data fields up to, say, 32 bytes.) The checksum byte contains an "exclusive-or" or "longitudinal parity" of all previous bytes (from the start character onwards). Together with the parity bit attached to each byte, this is used to detect communication errors.

START

ADDR

COMM

BCNT

[ STATUS ]

[ DATA ]

CHK

Using the HART digital communication method, up to four measurements can be transmitted in a single message. Multivariable instruments have been developed to take advantage of this. When using only digital communication, several instruments can be connected in parallel through a single pair of wires to the host controller or computer. This is also called "multidrop" mode. This method lessens the complexity of cabling needed to gather data from the remote instruments. In this mode no analog signal can be transmitted. Each device has their analog current set to the minimum value i.e. 4 mA). Each remote device has its own address, allowing the host computer to communicate with each in turn.

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At the host computer the HART signal is intercepted by a device called a HART modem. Many different companies manufacture these devices. The one used in this lab is called the Viator, made by MACTek. The HART modem demodulates the signals embedded in the 4 to 20 mA loop and brings it into the PC via either an RS--232 port or a USB port. One must install the HART interface software driver, so as to allow higher level software to communicate with the HART modem. To connect it to the current loop, one must put a load resistor in the path of the current loop. The resister used in this lab is about 395 ohms. This is all shown in Fig. 5.10.

Figure 5.10: Coriolis mass flow meter, HART modem, and multimeter setup. Krohne software Krohne supplies some software which deciphers the information sent from the mass flow meter to the HART modem and through its device driver and displays it on the computer. The device values should be observable on both the transmitter and the computer.

Experiment
1. The Coriolis meter is mounted on a line that also has a rotameter and a turbine meter. Monitor the uncertainties in the flow using both the rotameter and the turbine meter. Use the multimeter to measure the analog signal from the coriolis meter on the current loop. Which parameter is output as the analog signal? Use the coriolis meter (transmitter and through the computer) to calibrate the other instruments. The domestic hot water is connected in a "T" connection with the domestic cold water, so, variable quantities of cold and hot water can be mixed before going through the fluid circuit. Change the temperature of the fluid flow and see how th e Coriolis meter responds. Use the IR thermometer to monitor the tube temperature. There is a bubble generator at the upstream end of the tube. Turn this ON and see how the introduction of bubbles (void) affects the Coriolis meter's measurement of flow rate and density.

2. 3.

4.

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Discussion
1. In addition to calibrating the coriolis meter and the other instruments, perform an instrument uncertainty calculation for each of the meters. Does the coriolis meter temperature measurement correspond to the IR thermometer measurement? How does temperature variation affect the mass flow calculation. How does the introduction of void affect the ability of the coriolis meter to measure mass flow rate and density?

2.

3.

References
1. 2. 3. 4. http://www.krohne-mar.com/Measuring_Principle_Coriolis_Mass_Flowmeters_en.730.0.html Krohne OptiMass MFS 7000 sensor user manual Krohne OptiMass MFC 050 signal translator user manual MACTek HART modem User Manual

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