Fractal flow conditioners for orifice plate flow meters

The orifice plate flow meter is the most common form of differential pressure flow meter used in industry. The standard discharge coefficient, which is defined by both British Standard and [SO 5167, is only valid if the flow approaching the meter is perfectly settled and fully developed. However, in practical applications the flow approaching the orifice meter is often disturbed by pipe-fittings and consequently the measurements become inaccurate. Basically, the design of the orifice plate meters that are independent of the upstream disturbances is a main goal for orifice plate metering. Either using a long straight pipe, or a flow conditioner upstream of an orifice plate, usually achieves this goal. In this project the effect of the fractal flow conditioner for both standard and non-standard flow conditions has been investigated in an experimental rig and simulation work. The results of using a combination of the fratal flow conditioner and orifice plate for non-standard flow conditions including swirling flow and asymmetric flow show that this package can preserve the accuracy of metering up to the level required in the Standards. The simulation results also show that the device can be used as a part of a flow metering package that will considerably reduce installation lengths. According to the main idea to introduce a predetermined turbulence flow caused by a flow conditioner for orifice plate flow metering, author was introduced another type of flow conditioner known as a metal foam flow conditioner. Open-cell metal foams with a porosity of 78.8% was formed and fashioned as a flow conditioner. Again the experimental results using the metal foam flow conditioner showed this metal foam flow conditioner demonstrated a good performance in terms of removing swirl and producing a repeatedly same flow profile within a short distance downstream of the flow conditioner. Furthermore, the low pressure drop across the metal foam is another advantage of this flow conditioner where the pressure loss coefficient for this flow conditioner is approximately 2.5.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo