Ultrasonic flowmeter

[BoomerSooner7]

Anyone have experience with ultrasonic flowmeters and any precautions for using them? We currently have turbine meters installed measuring volumetric flow rate of filtered water. It is a pain to remove these flowmeters for calibration and expensive to buy duplicate "master" flowmeters for calibration, am looking for alternative solutions. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[casflo]

In nuclear power plant the ultrasonic flowmeters are used in some water systems of pure water or simply filtered water. Put the device in a straight pipe run.

 

[BoomerSooner7]

Do you know the advantages/disadvantages over turbine flowmeters?

 

[JLSeagull]

A transit-time ultrasonic flow meter is mostly non intrusive with no moving parts. Both have high rangeability. Neither work well with mixed phase. I don't plan to ever buy another turbine meter unless dictated by my client on a reimbursible project. However that does not suggest that I would buy an ultrasonic meter instead as other technologies would also be considered based upon line size, fluid properties, accuracy requirements etc.

 

[BoomerSooner7]

Any advice on reputable vendor(s) I can pose my questions to?

 

[DRWeig]

Thermo Scientific (formerly Thermo Electron) and Dynasonics are decent in my experience.

Good on ya,

Goober Dave

 

[dcasto]

for highest accuracy you need to install flow conditioners and use multipath transmitters/recievers

 

[DLite30]

We buy all of our gas ultrasonic meters from Daniel. They can help you with installation requirements, such as conditioning and run lengths.

http://www.emersonprocess.com/daniel/

 

[JLSeagull]

GE Panametrics is another manufacturer.

 

[WaterMan22]

Accusonic and Rittmeyer are also good companies.

 

[waterpipe]

You can also check with E+H (Endress+Hauser). they've got quite nice learning materials and software.
ultrasonic flowmeters are common in water industry. I am not aware of any specific problem with them.

 

[BoomerSooner7]

Thanks for the replies guys. Does anyone have specific experience with changing from turbine meters to ultrasonic meters and the results between the two? Am looking for a non-intrusive solution but not at the cost of sacrificing accuracy and reliability.

 

[Duwe6]

Guess what? Nobody uses UT Flowmeters much. That is a similar situation to 2 side-by-side resturants: eat at the one with a full parking lot, not the empty one. Look at using Mass Flow Meters [Micro Motion is a good brand]. They work better in the real world.

Ignore your UT Flowmeter salesman.

 

[JLSeagull]

Ultrasonic flow meters are gaining acceptance. Instead of just the term mass flow meter, describe the Micro Motion meter among the suppliers of Coriolis technology. These are great for small lines. However as the lines exceed about NPS 10 you can forget about Coriolis meters.

 

[waterpipe]

@Duwe6: It would have been better if few technical points were mentioned instead of a tasteless example. what is the specific issues with ultrasonic flowmeters that make them not good for real life?

In think the flow range and pipe size should be specified prior to looking for a proper option.

 

[hacksaw]

some ultra-sonic meters can be used as flow standards such as in natural gas but they are not garden variety or cheap.

what is the line size

 

[danw2]

Will clamp-on transit time ultrasonic flow meter work on your water line? Yes.

But the original post mentions the presumed effort involved with calibration to a master standard as driving the dissatisfaction with turbine meters.

Assuming the plant's requirement for calibraton is non-trivial, what constitutes a valid calibration? Certified traceable flow stand calibration?
Bucket and stop watch test?
What exactly does the "duplicate 'master' flow meter" accomplish in relationship to the working meters? Are the working meter sent out for flow stand calibration or somehow checked against a master turbine meter?

If the technology changes to ultrasonic, how would a valid calibration be accomplished?

The listing for clamp-on, the standard FUS1010 model transit time ultrasonic flow meter cal certs on the Siemens (formerly Controlatron) spec sheet (page 6) states:

- Wet flow transfer calibration, 6 point; based on nominal line size, up to 36"/DIN900.

Siemens has specific clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters designated as "Check Metering", described as "developed especially for verifying the accuracy and performance of any brand or type of flowmeter."

https://www.automation.siemens.com/...og sheets/sitransf_fup1010_prüfset_fi01en.pdf

These models include a "certificate of intrinsic calibration". I'm not sure what that means.

Rather than doing an all around replacment of in-line meters, does the certification of clamp-on meters meets your requirement as check meter device? Could you consider using a single clamp-on meter to check the installed working turbine meters, rather than doing whatever it is that is done currently with the master turbine meter?

 

[waterpipe]

Hi again,

looking to my docs today, I passed the following file and thought in might be of help / interest for this post. It covers different flow metering concepts and their applications. It does a relatively good comparison between all types including the ultrasonic method. I know it's only theory but a good experience has always a good theory as the background.