An Effect of Flow Conditioner on Accuracy of Fluid Flow Measurement

Abstract

The differential pressure flow meter which is orifice plate is sensitive to the quality of approaching flow. The fractal perforated flow conditioner is combining with the orifice plate to enhance the quality of fluid flow. The purposes of this study are to determine the pressure drop and discharged coefficients of the flow of the fractal perforated plate.  The experimental work was done to utilizing three types of flow conditioner which is a fractal plate with β = 0.7, NEL plate and un-chamfered plate. The pipe length upstream the orifice plate which is 3D, 5D and 7D also been taken into consideration. The data were collected and were examined with each type of flow conditioner at a certain pipe length to identify the pressure drop. The measurement of flow rate and Reynolds number was used to establish a change in discharged coefficient. In this study, the best type of flow conditioner was the unchamfered plate due to the higher porosity of plate with 61.85% and lowest pressure drop when comparing to NEL plate and fractal plate with β = 0.7.  For pipe length, 5D length was the suitable location upstream the orifice plate due to the lower pressure drop when compared to the other length.