Announcements

• Booking sheets up for Mechanical System

Marking up on Control Notice Board
• Marking taking place from 11h00 to 14h00 on
Thursday 20th March
• Some design proposals not yet collected
• Strain Gauge tutorial will be on Wednesday this
week
– Groups 1 – 8: 14h00 to 14h30
– Groups 9 – 16: 14h30 to 15h00
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 Mechanical System Marks
Breakdown

10 - Working/Completed to Specification
5 - Practicality/ Ease of Use
5 - Style and Aesthetics
20 - TOTAL

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 Flow Measurement
• Up until now, we have
mainly focused on
measurement techniques
and measurands which
are directly accessible as
physical variables

• Many different techniques

are used to measure flow
depending on the
www.rshydro.co.uk/ultrasonic-flowmeter.shtml
application

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 Introduction to Flow
Measurement
• It is easy to visualise flow is in terms of
volume rates i.e. ℓ/s or m3/s

• Most flow measurement is used in chemical

processes where mass is the variable which
needs to be measured

• Mass and volume are related by density:

m

V
• Density fluctuates with temperature and www.katronic.co.uk/prod_02.html

pressure changes and therefore is not a

reliable indicator of mass flow if high
accuracies are required
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 Introduction to Flow
Measurement
• Volumetric flow is related to actual fluid movement
in terms of the pipe-cross section:
Q  Av

• Where Q is the flow rate, A is the cross sectional

area and v is the flow velocity

• How do we measure flow in pipes? There are

several methods, all of which have good and bad
points
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 Flow Measurement Methods: Flow
Gate

• Consists of a hinged flap

which is set up to impede
the flow

• The stronger the flow the

more the gate will be
pushed up

• The angle of the flow gate

can then be measured
and translated into an
electrical signal

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Orifice Plate
• An orifice plate is a constriction in the pipe

• The constriction causes a pressure drop in the pipe from upstream to

downstream sides

• The pressure drop is related by the following expression:

Q  AK 2 gP

• Where g is the gravitational constant, ΔP is the pressure drop, and K is the

discharge coefficient

• K depends on the construction of the plate, i.e. whether it is a smooth

venturi-type construction or simply a blockage plate with a hole in it.

• It also depends on the density and viscosity of the flow liquid. K values can
be found in engineering handbooks

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Orifice Plate

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Variable Area Flow Meter
• A variable area flow meter is
similar in principle to a flow gate

• Position of the float in the meter

gives an indication of the flow rate

• This type of meter is always

orientated vertically

• The float is pulled down by gravity

while the flow pushes it up

• It comes to rest when the

differential pressures on the top
and bottom of the float balance out
the weight of the float

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Positive Displacement Flow meters

• It is a mechanical device that parcels liquid up into discrete volumes

and measures the rate at which the parcels need to be processed
so as to maintain the flow

• Generally the most accurate flow meters

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Turbine Flow meters

• Consist of a small vaned

wheel (like a propeller) in
the flow path

• The propeller spin

according to how fast the
fluid flows past it

• The rate of rotation will

give us an indication of
the flow rate
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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Electromagnetic Flow meters

• Can only work on

conductive fluids

• Use Faraday’s law of

induction, which states
that in the presences of
a magnetic field B, a
voltage E will be
induced across a length
L of liquid moving with a
velocity v according to:

E BLv

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 Flow Measurement Methods: Vortex
Shedding Flow meters
• Works according to the principle
that an obstruction in a pipe will
produce turbulence in a known
fashion

• A centrally placed object, known

as a bluff body, will shed vortices
downstream in a very predictable
and linear way

• An ultrasonic beam can be used to

detect the vortices

• A pressure system can also be

used to detect them
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 Flow Measurement Methods: Hot-
Wire Anemometry

• This technique is widely used in industrial flow measurement

• The general principle is: A moving liquid will cool a hot object which
it flows over and the faster it moves the cooler the object will be

• The way to implement it is to have two resistors, one of which is

exposed to flow and one which is not

• Both resistors are identical and have identical currents flowing

through them

• Each will be heated up by Ohmic heating P I 2 R

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 Flow Measurement Methods: Hot-
Wire Anemometry

• The difference in
temperature is
measured by
measuring the
resistance of the
resistors as all
resistors have some
known temperature
coefficient

• A Wheatstone bridge
arrangement can be
used to detect changes
in resistance
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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Flow meters

• Sound does not have an absolute velocity as light does, it is

sensitive to movements in the medium it is travelling in
• Sound which travels in a medium that is flowing in the opposite
direction to the direction of the sound will travel more slowly than
sound travelling in the same direction as the movement of the
medium
• If we have an upstream and a downstream ultrasonic transmitter
and receiver, we can measure the difference in the time of flight of
the upstream and downstream signals
• From this we can calculate fluid flow velocity. The time difference is
typically of the form
L
T
c vcos 
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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight Flow meters

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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Cross-Correlation Flow meters
• Work on the principle that there are features in the flow which can be
detected at two different points

• For example, there maybe bubbles entrained in the flow or particles or

pressure fluctuations

• If we can detect them, we can cross correlate them mathematically, which

will give use the time difference for the travel between two points, according
to the following relationship:

1
R  lim T   f t g t  dt
T

• Where f(t) and g(t) are the detection signals at the two points. R() will have
a peak at the point where  is equal to the time delay between the two
points
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 Flow Measurement Methods:
Cross-Correlation Flow meters

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