Wollo University

Kombolcha Institute of Technology

School of Mechanical & Chemical Engineering

Chapter 4: Flow Measurement

Prepared by: Wubishet Degife.

E-mail: [email protected]
Outline lecture notes
• Pressure measurement

• Velocity measurement

• Discharge measurement

• Viscosity measurement

• Density measurement

2
 Introduction
• Why measurement is important???

In this chapter an attempt has been made to present the principles and phenomenon of fluid
mechanics which are adopted for the measurements of fluid pressure, flow velocity, flow
rate or discharge rate, viscosity of fluids and density of fluids using different measuring
instruments/devices and their working principles
3
 Pressure measurement
• The pressure of a fluid is measured by the following devices
1. Manometers and
2. Mechanical gauges
Manometers: are devices which are used for measuring the pressure at a point in a
fluid by balancing the column of fluid by the same or another column of the fluid.
• They are classified as:
A. Simple manometers and
B. Differential manometers
Mechanical gauges: are devices used for measuring the pressure by balancing the fluid
column by the spring or dead weight.
• The commonly used mechanical gauges are:

The simple manometer: consists of a glass tube having one of its end connected to a point
where pressure is to be measured and the other end remains open to the atmosphere.
• The common types of the simple manometers are: 4
 Cont…

Piezometer:
• It is the simplest form of manometer used for measuring gauge
pressures.
• One end of this manometer is connected to the point where
pressure is to be measured and the other end is open to the
atmosphere as shown in fig 4.1.
• The rise of liquid gives the pressure head at that point.
Fig. 4.1: Piezometer
✓ For example, if u want to measure the pressure at point A
given the fluid is water, the height of the liquid water rises h
meter in piezometer tube, then the pressure at A would be:

5
 Cont…
Example 1. The piezometer shown in fig. fluid 1 is oil (SG = 0.87) and fluid 2 is glycerin at
20°C. If Pa = 98 kPa, determine the absolute pressure at point A, given specific weight of water is
9790N/m3 and specific weight of glycerin at 20oC is 12360N/m3.

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 Cont…
Solution for example 1

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 Cont…
U-tube manometer: it consists of glass tube bent in U-shape, one end of which is connected to a
point at which pressure is to be measured and the other end remains open to the atmosphere as
shown in fig. 4.2.
• The tube generally contains mercury or any other liquid whose specific gravity is greater
than the specific gravity of the liquid whose pressure is to be measured.

(a) For gauge pressure (a) For vacuum pressure

Fig. 4.2: U-tube manometer
(a) For gauge pressure: Let B be the point at which pressure is to be measure and let whose
value is P. Then, at the datum line A-A, the left and right side of the U-tube has the same
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pressure because it is at the same depth.
 Cont…

Hence these two pressures (right and left column of the U-tube at point A-A) are equal, then
equating them would give:

(b) For vacuum pressure: for measuring vacuum pressure, the level of the heavy liquid in the
manometer will be shown in fig 4.2b, then

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Note that: Most pressure measurement devices are calibrated to read zero atmospheric pressure.
 Cont…
Single column manometer:
• A single column manometer is a modified form of a U-tube manometer in which a reservior a
large cross-sectional area (about 100 times) as compared to the area of the tube is connected to
one of the limbs (say left limb) of the manometer as shown in fig 4.3.
• Due to large cross-sectional area of the reservior, for any variation in pressure, the change in
the liquid level in the reservior will be very small which may be neglected and hence the
pressure is given by the height of liquid in the other limb. The other limb may be vertical or
inclined.
• Thus, there are two types of single column manometer as:
✓ Vertical single column manometer, and
✓ Inclined single column manometer

Fig. 4.3: vertical single column manometer

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 Cont…
Inclined single column manometer:

Fig. 4.4: inclined single column

manometer

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 Cont…
Differential manometers:

U-tube differential manometer: fig 4.5 shows the differential manometer of U-tube type

(a) Two pipes A and B at different levels (b) Two pipes A and B at same levels

Fig 4.5: U-tube differential manometers

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Cont…

…………………………… (iv)
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Cont…

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 Cont…
Example 2: For the inverted manometer shown in fig., all
fluids are at 20°C. If PB - PA = 97 kPa, what must the
height H be in cm? given specific weight of mercury is
133100N/m3
Solution

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 Velocity measurement
• Velocity constitutes an important parameter in kinematics and dynamics of fluid flow. Thus,
its measurement is quite important.
• Velocity measuring devices may be classified as:
✓ Three-cup anemometer;
✓ Savonius rotor;
✓ Tturbine mounted in a duct;
✓ Free-propeller meter;
✓ Hot-wire anemometer; (f) hot-film anemometer;
✓ Pitot-static tube;
✓ Laser - Doppler Anemometer, each is shown in figure 4.7 below
• Thus, basically we can classify velocity measuring devices as:
✓ Instruments like the pitot - tube and hot wire anemometers which measure the local
velocity at a point in the channel or duct through which the fluid is flowing.
✓ Instruments like the cup and vane anemometers which measures the average velocity of
fluid flow.
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Cont…

Fig. 4.7: Eight common

velocity meters: (a) three-cup
anemometer; (b) Savonius
rotor; (c) turbine mounted in a
duct; (d) free-propeller meter;
(e) hot-wire anemometer; (f)
hot-film anemometer; (g) pitot-
static tube; (h) laser doppler
anemometer.

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 Cont…

1. The Pitot static tube:

• Pitot probes (also called Pitot tubes) and Pitot-static probes, named after the French engineer
Henri de Pitot (1695–1771), are widely used for flow velocity measurement.
• Is a slender tube aligned with the flow (Figs. 4.7g) can measure local velocity by means of a
pressure difference.
• It has sidewall holes to measure the static pressure Ps in the moving stream and a hole in the
front to measure the stagnation pressure Po, where the stream is decelerated to zero velocity.
• Instead of measuring Po or Ps separately, it is customary to measure their difference with a
transducer, as in Fig. 4.8.
• A Pitot probe is just a tube with a pressure tap at the stagnation point that measures stagnation
pressure, while a Pitot-static probe has both a stagnation pressure tap and several
circumferential static pressure taps and it measures both stagnation and static pressures (Figs.
4.8a, b and 4.8c). 21
Cont…

22
 Cont…
• It consists of a slender double-tube aligned with the flow and connected to a differential
pressure meter. The inner tube is fully open to flow at the nose, and thus it measures the
stagnation pressure at that location (point 1). The outer tube is sealed at the nose, but it has
holes on the side of the outer wall (point 2) and thus it measures the static pressure.

• In its elementary form, a pitot tube consists of an L-shape tube; a tube bent through 90o and
with ends unsealed.
✓ One limb called the body is inserted into the flow stream and aligned with the direction of
flow whilst the other limb called the stem is vertical and open to the atmosphere as shown
in fig. 4.9.

Fig. 4.9: Pitot static

probes

• Applying the Bernoulli's equation to point 1 (a point upstream from the submerged end23of the
tube) and point 2 ( a point at the tip or nose of the tube itself)
 Cont…

• Now at the stagnation point (i.e. point 2 or at the nose or tip of the tube) the flowing fluid is
brought to rest i.e V2 = 0. Further points 1 and 2 lie at the same elevation datum i.e. y 1 = y2,
Equation (a) further simplified as:

Re-arranging and simplifying we get

Where V1 is the free stream fluid velocity.

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This is the Pitot formula, named after the French engineer who designed the device in 1732.
 Cont…
From fig. 4.9b;

Where h is the rise of liquid level in the stem above the free surface

Thus up on substitution the value of Ps and Po in Equation (b), we obtain:

• Evidently, equation (b) and (c) are equally valid for determining the flow velocity at a point in
the pipe line

2. Hot wire anemometer:

• A very fine wire (d = 0.01 mm or less) heated between two small probes, as in Fig. 4.7e, is
ideally suited to measure rapidly fluctuating flows such as the turbulent boundary layer.
• The idea dates back to work by L. V. King in 1914 on heat loss from long thin cylinders.
• If electric power is supplied to heat the cylinder, the loss varies with flow velocity across the
cylinder according to King’s law

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 Cont…
where
q – is the power output I – is the current V – is the flow velocity, and
R – is the resistance
n ≈ 1/3 at very low Reynolds numbers and
n ≈ 1/2 at high Reynolds numbers.
• The hot wire normally operates in the high-Reynolds-number range but should be calibrated
in each situation to find the best-fit a, b, and n.
• The wire can be operated either at constant current I, so that resistance R is a measure of V,
or at constant resistance R (constant temperature), with I a measure of velocity. In either case,
the output is a nonlinear function of V, and the equipment should contain a linearizer to
produce convenient velocity data.
• Because of its frailty (infirmity or weakness), the hot wire is not suited to liquid flows, whose
high density and entrained sediment will knock the wire right off. A more stable yet quite
sensitive alternative for liquid-flow measurement is the hot-film anemometer (Fig. 4.7f).

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 Cont…
• A thin metallic film, usually platinum, is plated onto a relatively thick support which can be a
wedge, a cone, or a cylinder. The operation is similar to the hot wire. The cone gives best
response but is liable to error when the flow is yawed/changed to its axis.
• Hot wire anemometer has been considered as a satisfactory approach to the measurement of
mean and fluctuating velocity components in a flow field.
• The sensor is 5 micron diameter platinum-tungston wire welded between the two prongs of
the probe and heated electrically as a part of wheat stone bridge circuit as shown in fig. 4.10.

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 Cont…
• When the probe is introduced in to the flowing fluid, it tends to be cooled by the
instantaneous velocity fluid velocity and consequently there is a tendency for the electrical
resistance to diminish. Since as temperature of the wire decreases the resistance also
decreases
• The rate of cooling of the hot wire depends up on
✓ The dimensions and physical properties of the wire
✓ The difference in temperature between the wire and the fluid
✓ The physical properties of the fluid, and
✓ The stream velocity of the fluid under measurement
• For a simple hot wire anemometer, the first three conditions are effectively constant and
the instrument response is then a direct measure of the flow velocity.
• Depending on the associated electronic equipment, a hot wire set may be operated in two ways
(shown in fig 4.11)
✓ Constant current mode, and
✓ Constant temperature mode
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 Cont…

Constant current mode:

• Where the heating current (i.e. voltage) across the bridge is kept constant.
• Initially the circuit is adjusted such that the galvanometer reads zero when the heated wire
lies in a stationary air. When the air flows, the hot wire cools, the resistance changes and
the galvanometer deflects. The galvanometer deflection is amplified, measured and correlated
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with air velocity by prior calibration.
 Cont…
Constant temperature mode:
• Wherein operating resistance of the wire and hence its temperature is maintained constant.
• In the event of the tendency of the hot wire to cool by the flowing fluid, an external bridge
voltage is applied to the wire to maintain sensibly constant temperature. The bridge voltage
is varied so as to bring the galvanometer needle to zero; the reading on the voltmeter is
recorded and correlated with the air velocity.
• The response of the hot wire placed normal to flow stream with velocity V is known to be
described by Equation (d) or it may also described as:

Where E - is the instantaneous value of the bridge voltage

Eo and B are constants depending on the cold resistance of the wire and on the
properties of the fluid medium. The values of these constants for a given wire are found
by calibrating the wire in a uniform flow field against a standard pitot static probe.
V – is the fluid velocity to be determined

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 Cont…
3. Cup and vane anemometer:
• These are devices which are used to measure the speed of air movements (fig. 4.7a).
• These device consists of a rotating element whose speed of rotation varies with the velocity
of flow.
• In cup anemometer cups are attached to radial arms mounted on a shaft. Drag forces are set up
on these cups when a flow stream in the plane of rotation approaches the unit from any
direction.
• For the arrangement shown in fig 4.12a, the drag on the cup A (cup with its open end facing
towards the stream) is greater than that on cup B (cup with round face towards the stream).
The resultant torque rotates the assembly in the anticlockwise direction. The number of
revolution is read from a dial for a given period of time, and the frequency of rotation gives
a measure of the average speed of air in the region traversed by the air.

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 Cont…
Cup B

Fig. 4.12: cup and vane anemometer

• In a vane anemometer, vanes of the wind mill type are mounted in a support so that the fluid
flow is parallel to the axis of rotation. The rotor derives a low friction gear train that in turn
drives a pointer that indicates the wind speed on a dial. 32
 Cont…
• The cup anemometer is usually mounted on a rigid shaft where as a vane type is held in hand
while reading are being taken.
• The cup type unit is best for relatively low speeds where as the vane type measures large
speeds more accurately.
• Experiments indicate that provided the wind speed is not too large, the relation between
wind speed and angular velocity of cups/vanes is linear.

4. Current and turbine meters:

• Current and turbine meters are devices which measures the speed of water movement (fig.
4.13).
• A current meter consists of a horizontal wheel on which are fixed the conical buckets of V-
shaped vanes.
• The unit is suspended in to the flow stream by a suspension cable which is held taut (in
tension) by a streamlined weight.
• Horizontal positioning (placement of the unit along the flow direction) is ensured by a
streamlined tail vane.
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 Cont…

Fig. 4.13a: Current meter Fig 4.13b: Turbine meter

• When the unit is held in a flowing stream, the liquid strikes the buckets and that sets the wheel
in rotation. At every revolution, signals are transmitted to the observer or to a revolution
counter through electrical contacts. Frequency of rotation is directly related to the velocity
of the flow by appropriate calibration data.
• A turbine meter is similar in operation to a cup anemometer and depends on the
application of an eccentric force applied by partial immersion of a blade rotor in the fluid
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flow stream.
 Discharge measurement
• A major application area of fluid mechanics is the determination of the flow rate of fluids, and
numerous devices have been developed over the years for the purpose of flow metering.
• Flow meters range widely in their level of sophistication, size, cost, accuracy, versatility,
capacity, pressure drop, and the operating principle.
• We will look at an overview of the different meters commonly used to measure the flow rate of
liquids and gases flowing through pipes or ducts. Here, we limit our consideration to
incompressible flow.
• Some flow meters measure the flow rate directly by discharging and recharging a measuring
chamber of known volume continuously and keeping track of the number of discharges per
unit time.
• But most flow meters measure the flow rate indirectly - they measure the average velocity V
and determine the volume flow rate using:

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 Cont…
• Therefore, measuring the flow rate is usually done by measuring flow velocity, and most
flow meters are simply called velocimeters used for the purpose of metering flow.
• The velocity in a pipe varies from zero at the wall to a maximum at the center, and it is
important to keep this in mind when taking velocity measurements.
✓ For laminar flow, for example, the average velocity is half the centerline velocity. But this
is not the case in turbulent flow, and it may be necessary to take the weighted average of
several local velocity measurements to determine the average velocity.
• The flow rate measurement techniques range from very crude (rough or simple or basic) to
very elegant (well-designed).
• The flow rate of water through a garden hose, for example, can be measured simply by
collecting the water in a bucket of known volume and dividing the amount collected by the
collection time (Fig. 4.14).

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 Cont…

Fig 4.14: A primitive (but fairly accurate) way of

measuring the flow rate of water through a garden hose
involves collecting water in a bucket and recording the
collection time.

• Generally beyond the simple flow rate measurement techniques as shown in fig 4.14, flow
rates can be measured using:
✓ Obstruction Flow meters: Common types of obstruction meters are Orifice meter, Venturi
meter, and Flow nozzle or Nozzle Meters
✓ Variable-Area Flow meters (Rota-meters)

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 Cont…
1. Obstruction Flow meters
• Consider an incompressible steady flow of a fluid in a horizontal pipe of diameter D that is
constricted to a flow area of diameter d, as shown in Fig. 4.15.

Fig 4.15: Flow through a constriction in a pipe.

• The mass balance and the Bernoulli equations between a location before the constriction (point
1) and the location where constriction occurs (point 2) can be written as:
……………… (b)

……………… (c)

Combining Eqs. (b) and (c) and solving for velocity V2 would give 38
 Cont…

……………………..… (d)

Once V2 is known, the flow rate can be determined from

……………………..… (e)

• This simple analysis shows that the flow rate through a pipe can be determined by constricting
the flow and measuring the decrease in pressure due to the increase in velocity at the
constriction site. Noting that the pressure drop between two points along the flow can be
measured easily by a differential pressure transducer or manometer, it appears that a simple
flow rate measurement device can be built by obstructing the flow. Flow meters based on this
principle are called obstruction flow meters and are widely used to measure flow rates of
gases and liquids.

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 Cont…
• The velocity in Eq. (d) is obtained by assuming no loss, and thus it is the maximum velocity
that can occur at the constriction site. In reality, some pressure losses due to frictional effects
are inevitable, & thus the velocity will be less. Also, the fluid stream will continue to contract
past the obstruction, and the vena contracta area is less than the flow area of the
obstruction.
• Both these losses can be accounted for by incorporating a correction factor called the
discharge coefficient Cd whose value (which is less than 1) is determined experimentally.
Then the flow rate for obstruction flow meters can be expressed as:

……………………..… (f)

where Ao = A2 = Πd2/4 is the cross-sectional area of the hole or the constriction and β = d/D is the
ratio of hole diameter to pipe diameter.
• The value of Cd depends on both β and the Reynolds number Re = V1D/ν, where ν is the
kinematic viscosity.

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 Cont…
• Of the numerous types of obstruction meters available, those most widely used are orifice
meters, flow nozzles, and Venturi meters (Fig. 4.16).

(a) Orifice meter (c) Venturi meter

(b) Flow nozzle

Fig 4.16: Common types of obstruction meters
• The experimentally determined data for discharge coefficients Cd are expressed as

……………………..… (g)

……………………..… (h)

• These relations are valid for 0.25 < β < 0.75 and 104 < Re < 107. The precise values of Cd
depend on the particular design of the obstruction, and thus the manufacturer’s data should be
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consulted when available.
 Cont…
• For flows with high Reynolds numbers (Re > 30,000), the value of Cd can be taken to be 0.96
for flow nozzles and 0.61 for orifices.
• Owing to its streamlined design, the discharge coefficients of Venturi meters are very high,
ranging between 0.95 and 0.99 (the higher values are for the higher Reynolds numbers) for
most flows. In the absence of specific data, we can take Cd = 0.98 for Venturi meters.
• Example: Measuring Flow Rate with an Orifice Meter

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Cont…

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Cont…

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 Cont…
2. Variable-Area Flow meters (Rota-meters):
• A simple, reliable, inexpensive, and easy-to-install flow meter with low pressure drop and no
electrical connections that gives a direct reading of flow rate for a wide range of liquids and
gases is the variable-area flow meter, also called a rotameter or float meter.
• A variable-area flow meter consists of a vertical tapered conical transparent tube made of
glass or plastic with a float inside that is free to move, as shown in Fig. 4.17.
✓ As fluid flows through the tapered tube, the float rises within the tube to a location where
the float weight, drag force, and buoyancy force balance each other and the net force acting
on the float is zero.
✓ The flow rate is determined by simply matching the position of the float against the
graduated flow scale outside the tapered transparent tube.
• We know from experience that high winds knock down trees, break power lines, and blow
away hats or umbrellas. This is because the drag force increases with flow velocity.
• The weight and the buoyancy force acting on the float are constant, but the drag force changes
with flow velocity.
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 Cont…
• Also, the velocity along the tapered tube decreases in the
flow direction because of the increase in the cross-
sectional area. There is a certain velocity that generates
enough drag to balance the float weight and the
buoyancy force, and the location at which this velocity
occurs around the float is the location where the float
settles. The degree of tapering of the tube can be made
such that the vertical rise changes linearly with flow
rate, and thus the tube can be calibrated linearly for flow
rates. The transparent tube also allows the fluid to be
seen during flow.
• There are numerous kinds of variable-area flow meters.
✓ The gravity-based flow meter, and
✓ The spring-opposed flow meters Fig 4.17: Two types of variable-
area flow meters: (a) an ordinary
gravity-based meter and (b) a
spring-opposed meter. 46
 Cont…
• The gravity-based flow meter discussed above must be positioned vertically, with fluid
entering from the bottom and leaving from the top.
• In spring-opposed flow meters, the drag force is balanced by the spring force, and such flow
meters can be installed horizontally.

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 Viscosity measurement

• Viscosity is measured with a device called Viscosimeters or viscometers.

• The operation of all the viscometers depends upon the existence of laminar flow under certain
controlled and reproducible conditions.
• There are different types of viscometers available
✓ Capillary tube viscometer
✓ Efflux viscometers
✓ Falling sphere viscometer
✓ Rotating cylinder viscometer

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 Cont…

V – is the fluid velocity

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 Cont…
• Measurement of the flow rate Q and the head loss hf = dP/w across two cross-section in a
capillary would thus give the liquid viscosity.

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 Cont…
Falling sphere viscometer:
• A timed fall of ball through liquid in a tube is proportional to the absolute viscosity. This
forms the operating principles of a falling ball viscometer as shown in fig. 4.20.

Fig. 4.20: falling sphere viscometer 53

Cont…

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Cont…

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