Flow Induced Flow Measurement
Flow Induced Flow Measurement
Evans
Advisory Engineer, Idaho National Engineering
and Environmental Laboratory,
P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415
e-mail: [email protected]
Flow Rate Measurements Using
Jonathan D. Blotter Flow-Induced Pipe Vibration
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Department, This paper investigates the possibility of developing a nonintrusive, low-cost, flow-rate
Brigham Young University, measurement technique. The technique is based on signal noise from an accelerometer
Provo, Utah 84602 attached to the surface of the pipe. The signal noise is defined as the standard deviation
e-mail: [email protected] of the frequency-averaged time-series signal. Experimental results are presented that
indicate a nearly quadratic relationship over the test region between the signal noise and
Alan G. Stephens flow rate in the pipe. It is also shown that the signal noise–flow rate relationship is
Professor, College of Engineering, dependent on the pipe material and diameter. 关DOI: 10.1115/1.1667882兴
Idaho State University,
Pocatello, Idaho 83206
dard deviation of the signal increased with flow rate for flow- As the molecules of the fluid approach the wall, they have
measuring instrumentation 关2兴. Based on these results, initial kinetic energy. This kinetic energy must be converted to another
laboratory tests were performed by the authors. These tests dem- form of energy as the molecules reach the pipe wall. According to
onstrated that it was possible to use signal noise from an acceler- the first law of thermodynamics, some of the kinetic energy is
ometer to sense flow noise in a pipe 关3,4兴. These preliminary converted to heat as the turbulent eddies dissipate, but most is
results were used to obtain funding from the Department of En- converted into potential energy in the form of pressure 关11兴.
ergy 共DOE兲 through an INEEL Laboratory Directed Research and Consider a turbulent flow through a horizontal pipe of circular
Development 共LDRD兲 award to construct an air-water flow loop cross section. The velocities of the fluid can be expressed in terms
and continue to investigate the relationship between signal noise of a time average and a fluctuation as shown by Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲.
and flow rate. This paper presents the results of this investigation. u⫽ū⫹u ⬘ (3)
Pipe vibration due to internal flow has been investigated by
v ⫽ v̄ ⫹ v ⬘ ⫽ v ⬘ (4)
Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division for publication in the JOURNAL
OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING. Manuscript received by the Fluids Engineering Division
In Eqs. 共3兲 and 共4兲, u is the velocity in the direction of the
April 28, 2003; revised manuscript received November 7, 2003. Associated Editor: primary pipe axis and v is the velocity perpendicular to the pipe
J. Lee. axis. Since there is no net flow in the direction perpendicular to
280 Õ Vol. 126, MARCH 2004 Copyright © 2004 by ASME Transactions of the ASME
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the pipe axis, the time-averaged flow in that direction is zero and where:
so the instantaneous flow is just equal to the fluctuation.
Although the time averages of the fluctuations in any direction g
C⫽
are zero, the time average of the products, such as u ⬘ v ⬘ are not A␥
equal to zero. Prashun 关12兴 states that in general, it can be shown Equation 共14兲 indicates that the acceleration of the pipe is pro-
that the time average of the product of the velocity fluctuations is portional to the pressure fluctuations in the fluid. This experimen-
less than zero as shown by Eq. 共5兲. tal research is based on this premise.
The last relationship to be demonstrated is the relationship be-
u ⬘ v ⬘ ⬍0 (5)
tween the standard deviation of the pipe vibrations and the mean
Prashun 关12兴 also demonstrated that for a circular conduit of flow rate of the fluid in the pipe. Blake 关15兴 stated that the gen-
radius r, the shear stress, , at the wall can be related to the eration of vibrations by fluid motion involves the reactions of
pressure, p, as shown by Eqs. 共6兲 and 共7兲. fluids and solids to stresses imposed by time-varying flow. For
dynamically similar flows, the ratio of the flow fluctuations to the
r dp average flow is constant. Bird et al. 关16兴 clarified this relationship
⫽⫺ (6)
2 dx by noting that the oscillatory term is the time average of the ab-
solute magnitude of the oscillation, given by 冑m̄ where m⫽u ⬘ 2 .
dp 2 They defined this relationship as ‘‘intensity of turbulence,’’ which
⫽p ⬘ ⫽⫺ (7)
dx r is a measure of the magnitude of the turbulent disturbance, and is
given by Eq. 共15兲.
From the Navier-Stokes equations, Prashun also demonstrated
that for turbulent flow, the turbulent shear stress can be expressed 冑m̄
as shown by Eq. 共8兲 ⫽intensity of turbulence (15)
ū
⫽⫺ u ⬘ v ⬘ (8) From the definition of turbulent flow given in Eq. 共1兲 the inten-
Combining Eqs. 共7兲 and 共8兲 shows that the pressure fluctuation sity of turbulence expression can be rearranged as shown by Eq.
is proportional to the fluctuation of the fluid velocity as shown by 共16兲
Eq. 共9兲 1
N
⫽ 2⫽ ⫽C (16)
It can also be shown that the pipe vibration is proportional to ū ū ū 2
the pressure fluctuations in the fluid. For this analysis, the fluid-
Multiplying both sides by the number of points N and ū 2 and
filled piping system can be depicted as a one-dimensional model
dividing by N⫺1 results in Eq. 共17兲 where the left hand side is the
of a beam. It is well known from structural mechanics that the rate
definition of the sample standard deviation.
of change of the moment along a beam is equal to the shear and
the rate of change of shear, dV/dx, along the length of the beam N
1 NC
is equal to the pressure fluctuations, p ⬘ (x), per unit length as
N⫺1 兺 关 u 共 t 兲 ⫺ū 兴 ⫽ N⫺1 ¯u ⫽Kū
i
2 2 2
(17)
shown by Eq. 共10兲 关13兴. i⫽1
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Fig. 1 Flow loop schematic
The water for the test section goes from the pump, through the 3.1.1 Control System. The pump and valves in the flow loop
control valve and then through an air-water mixer before entering are controlled from a control panel in an adjacent room. The con-
the test section. In this research, air was not mixed with the water trol panel has an on-off switch for the pump motor as well as a
but the flow still passes through the mixing chamber. After pass- variable speed control. A dial gage, which receives input from the
ing through the test section, the water enters the first of two air- pump speed controller, displays the speed in revolutions per
water separator tanks which allow any entrained air to separate minute. The air-operated valves are controlled by electric potenti-
from the water by gravity. The pressure and water level in the tank
ometers on the control panel. The panel is situated so that the loop
are monitored by a pressure gage and level indicator, respectively.
The water from the first air-water separator tank passes out of the can be viewed during operation.
bottom of the tank into a second, smaller air-water separator tank, 3.1.2 Test Measurement Transducers. The flow loop instru-
where any additional air can be removed from the water. The mentation consisted of: a兲 a PCB Piezotronics Model 352B68 pi-
water then goes to the pump to start the cycle again.
ezoelectric accelerometer to measure pipe vibration in the test
The bypass loop provides two functions: it provides an alternate
path for the water so that the amount of water flowing through the section, b兲 a Flow Technology FT Series full-bore turbine flow
test section can be controlled without changing the pump speed, meter with a 0.0762-m 共3 in兲 nominal diameter, operating range of
and it also provides a system to cool and clean the loop water. The 250 to 2,500 liters/min 共l/m兲, repeatability of ⫾0.5% of reading,
water can become heated as it passes through the pump. After and linearity of ⫾0.5% of reading to measure water flow through
several passes through the pump, the water can become relatively the test section, c兲 a 0 to 1.034 MPa 共0 to 150 psi兲 Heise pressure
warm. Some of the water flowing through the bypass loop can be gage to measure test section pressure, and d兲 a bimetallic ther-
diverted through a system to cool and clean the water. The cooling mometer temperature gage to measure the test section tempera-
is accomplished by passing the water through a heat exchanger ture.
which transfers some of the heat to secondary cooling water. The
water also passes through an ion exchanger and filter to clean the 3.1.3 Data Acquisition and Recording System. Data from the
water before re-entering the flow path between the first and sec- flow loop transducers were recorded simultaneously on a
ond air-water separator tanks. The amount of water passing HP35670 Spectrum Analyzer and a PC based data acquisition sys-
through the cooling and cleanup system is monitored by a tem as shown in Fig. 2. As shown, the accelerometer data were
variable-area, rotameter and controlled by a hand-operated valve recorded using the spectrum analyzer while all other data were
in the bypass line. The remainder of the water from the bypass recorded using the PC data acquisition system.
loop re-enters the flow path at the outlet of the first air-water
separator tank. The loop water piping is primarily 0.0762 m or 3.2 Test Section. The flow loop test section consists of a 6.1
0.102 m 共3 or 4 in兲 nominal pipe size and primarily of 304 stain- m 共240 in兲 interchangeable section of pipe. In this effort, five
less steel and polyvinyl chloride 共PVC兲. different test sections were used. The first three sections, were
The structural support for the test section was designed to mini- nominal 0.0762-m 共3 in兲 diameter schedule 40 pipe made of clear
mize any external vibration. The test section was connected to the PVC, 304/304 L stainless steel, and aluminum. These three sec-
flow loop through rubber isolators and the pump was mounted to tions were used to determine the effects of material properties on
isolate as much vibration as possible. Background noise tests in-
the signal noise–flow rate relationship. Two other test sections,
dicated a quiet system and the data required minimal filtering for
extraneous noise. one of 0.1016-m 共4 in兲 nominal diameter clear PVC and the other
For normal operation, the system is started from an uncircu- of 0.0381-m 共1.5 in兲 diameter stainless steel were used to inves-
lated, cold water condition and brought up to a flow rate that tigate the effects of pipe diameter. The various test sections were
completely fills the pipe. The system is then allowed to run until inserted into the flow loop one at a time by flanged connections.
the piping is free of air and a steady temperature and flow rate The accelerometer was mounted on the top of the pipe test section
have been reached. 2.34 m 共92 in兲 downstream of the inlet.
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Fig. 3 Frequency domain plots of the accelerometer data with
various flow rates
Fig. 2 Data acquisition schematic
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Fig. 7 Comparison of the curve fit of the standard deviation of
the vibrations in the test section with mass flow for various test
Fig. 4 Signal noise and curve fit for 0.0762-m „3-in… PVC pipe section materials
noise and flow rate. Although these curve fits are good it is noted two diameters are shown in Fig. 8. Figure 8 indicates that the
that if the flow rate went to zero this curve would most likely still dependence on pipe diameter is not constant over the flow domain
be deterministic but not quadratic. These curves also illustrate that investigated. It also shows that the larger diameter pipe has less
a system based on signal noise potentially has a much higher signal noise than the smaller pipe as might be expected.
sensitivity than a frequency shift based method. The second case consisted of comparing the 0.0762-m 共3 in兲
Figure 7 is a superposition plot of the signal noise versus flow stainless steel pipe to a 0.0381-m 共1.5 in兲 diameter stainless steel
rate for all three materials. This plot clearly indicates that the pipe pipe. The signal noise data for this case is shown in Fig. 9. Be-
material properties significantly change the shape of the curve and cause of limitations in the flow system, the maximum flow rate for
would need to be accounted for in the development of a measure- this case was approximately 1,200 l/m. The difference between
ment technique. These curves indicate that as the density and stiff- the curves in this case is more significant as is the change in pipe
ness of the material are increased, the slope of the signal noise— diameter. Furthermore, as in the previous case, the larger pipe
flow rate curve decreases. A focus for future work would be to diameter has lower signal noise values for the same flow rate.
determine relationships between density, stiffness, and signal To further investigate the significance of the data a nondimen-
noise. sional plot with all the data was developed as shown in Fig. 10.
Pipe diameter was another system parameter that was consid- The vertical axis is a nondimensional form of the standard devia-
ered to likely shift or change the shape of the signal noise–flow tion of the accelerometer data and the horizontal axis is the Rey-
rate curve. To investigate this, two cases were investigated. nolds number. This plot clearly indicates a strong relationship be-
The first case consisted of comparing the results of a 0.0762-m
and a 0.1016-m 共3 and 4 in兲 diameter pipe. The raw data for these
Fig. 8 Signal noise versus flow rate for 0.1016 m and 0.0762 m
Fig. 5 Signal noise and curve fit for 0.0762-m „3-in… stainless diameter PVC pipe
steel pipe
Fig. 6 Signal noise and curve fit for 0.0762-m „3 in… aluminum Fig. 9 Signal noise versus flow rate for 0.0762 m and 0.0381 m
pipe diameter stainless steel pipe
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References
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potential, than a frequency shift based technique. It was also 关11兴 Pittard, M. T., and Blotter, J. B., 2003, ‘‘Numerical Modeling of LES Based
shown that pipe material and the diameter have effects on the Turbulent-Flow Induced Vibration,’’ ASME International Mechanical Engi-
relationship. Based on this research, it can also be concluded that neering Congress & Exposition, Washington, D.C.
a signal-noise based, flow-measurement technique has potential 关12兴 Prashun, A. L., 1980, Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, Prentice Hall, Engle-
for development but that continued research into calibration tech- wood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 202–222, Chap. 7.
关13兴 Thomson, W. T., and Dahleh, M. D., 1998, Theory of Vibration with Applica-
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formed. 关14兴 Seto, W. W., 1964, Theory and Problems of Mechanical Vibrations, Schaum
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Acknowledgment Press Inc., Harcort Brace Jovanokich Publishers, Orlando, FL, pp. 1– 43, 1,
Chap. 1.
The authors would like to thank the DOE and the INEEL for
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the support of this research through the LDRD program. They John Wiley and Sons Inc., NY, pp. 153–179, Chap. 5.
would also like to thank Dr. Dan Maynes and Matt Pittard for 关17兴 Blevins, R. D., 1977, Flow-induced Vibration, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.,
their suggestions to the paper and involvement with the research. NY, pp. 287–311, Chap. 10.
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