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Flow Meter and Orifice Plate

The document discusses the basic principles and components of an orifice plate flow meter. It explains that an orifice plate placed in a pipe causes a pressure drop that can be measured to determine flow rate based on Bernoulli's law. It describes the minimum required straight pipe sections upstream and downstream of the orifice plate, known as the meter run. It also discusses different types of pressure tap configurations and their locations, as well as disadvantages like head loss and issues with turbulence affecting accuracy. Finally, it defines turndown ratio and notes the typical ratio for orifice plates is 3:1 to 6:1.

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Olaosebikan Roqeeb
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100 views6 pages

Flow Meter and Orifice Plate

The document discusses the basic principles and components of an orifice plate flow meter. It explains that an orifice plate placed in a pipe causes a pressure drop that can be measured to determine flow rate based on Bernoulli's law. It describes the minimum required straight pipe sections upstream and downstream of the orifice plate, known as the meter run. It also discusses different types of pressure tap configurations and their locations, as well as disadvantages like head loss and issues with turbulence affecting accuracy. Finally, it defines turndown ratio and notes the typical ratio for orifice plates is 3:1 to 6:1.

Uploaded by

Olaosebikan Roqeeb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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FLOW METER AND ORIFICE PLATE

In this chapter, i’d like to introduce about the most common device used
for measuring flow rate – Orifice Plate.

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or Mechanical and Piping Advanced Knowledge in O&G EPCIC for


Mechanical and Piping

Basic Principle of Orifice Meter


When an orifice plate is placed in a pipe carrying the fluid whose rate of
flow is to be measured, the orifice plate causes a pressure drop which
varies with the flow rate. This pressure drop is measured using a
differential pressure sensor and when calibrated this pressure
drop becomes a measure flow rate (base on Bernoulli’s Law)

By Pressure Drop, we can calculate the Flow rate base on the Ratio of Pipe I.D and Orifice
diameter through this formula.
This diagram shows how fluids flow through an orifice. The Beta ratio is the ratio of the
orifice size to the inside diameter of the pipe. These type of meters require a straight section
of pipe both upstream and downstream. This is called the meter run. The length of this is
dependent on the piping layout. For most piping systems it is 20 pipe diameters
upstream and 5 Downstream for an orifice plate. This must be checked for every meter .
Note that increasing the beta ratio provides increased accuracy, but also requires increased
straight run.

In fluid flow, friction loss (or skin friction) is the loss of pressure or
“head” (named HEAD LOSS/ PRESSURE PERMANENT LOSS)that
occurs in pipe or duct flow due to the effect of the fluid’s viscosity near
the surface of the pipe or duct – This is one of Disadvantage of orifice
plate on Piping system.
Minimum meter run as per ISO 5167-2
But the problem is the turbulent of flow near by the orifice will make less
accuracy of the Pressure drop sensors, hence we get wrong flow rate
calculation.

It called “Flange Tap positions”

Several standards exist for pressure tap locations. Ideally, the upstream
pressure tap will detect fluid pressure at a point of minimum velocity, and
the downstream tap will detect pressure at the “vena contracta”
(maximum velocity). In reality, this ideal is never perfectly achieved. An
overview of the most popular tap locations for orifice plates is shown in
the following illustration:

FLANGE TAP (2″ and over)


The most common are flange taps for pipe ( They are located 1 inch from
the upstream face of orifice plate and 1 inch from downstream face. They
are used for all standard orifice configurations.)

VENA-CONTRACTA TAP (Greater than 6″, for plant measurement


where the flows are relatively constant and plates are not changed)

Vena contracta taps offer the greatest differential pressure for any given
flow rate, but require precise calculations to properly locate the
downstream tap position.

(Vena-Contracta Taps are located 1 pipe diameter upstream of orifice


plate and at the point of minimum pressure downstream, this point is
called the vena-contracta. This point varies with Beta ratio.)

RADIUS TAP (not commonly used)

Radius Taps are located 1 pipe diameter upstream of orifice plate and one
half pipe diameter downstream of orifice plate.

CORNER TAP (less than 2″)

Corner Taps are used for honed meter runs like an integral orifice. They
are located immediately adjacent to plate faces both upstream and
downstream. Corner taps must be used on small pipe diameters where
the vena-contracta is so close to the downstream face of the orifice plate
that a downstream flange tap would sense pressure in the
highly turbulent region (too far downstream). Corner taps obviously
require distinctive (i.e. expensive) flange fittings, which is why they tend
to be used only when necessary.

PIPE TAP: (used for unstable flow pipeline as the measurement will not
be affected by the flow rate and turbulent at downstream)

Pipe Taps are located two and two and a half ~ (2.5) pipe diameters
upstream of orifice plate and eight (8) pipe diameters downstream of
orifice plate this puts the downstream tap at the point of maximum
pressure recovery.

TURNDOWN RATIO OR METER


RANGE-ABILITY
In flow measurement, the turndown ratio indicates the range of flow that a
flow meter is able to measure with acceptable accuracy. It is also known as
rangeability. It is important when choosing a flow meter technology for a
specific application. If a gas flow to be measured is expected to vary
between 100,000 m³ per day and 1,000,000 m³ per day, the specific
application has a turndown ratio of at 10:1. Therefore the meter requires a
turndown ratio of at least 10:1. For example: if the meter had an advertised
maximum flow of 2,000,000 m³ per day then the required turndown ratio
would be 20:1, hence it can read the 100,000 m³.

Note: The Orifice Turndown ratio around 3:1 to 6:1

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