Research on Accuracy Evaluation Method of Ultrasonic Flowmeter Used in Large Conduits

Chi Wang, He-ming Hu, Tao Meng
Abstract:
It is always a difficult task to measure the flow in large conduits. Ultrasonic flowmeter developed in recent years is a good choice for the large flow measurement, especially for turbine performance testing in hydroelectric plant, because of its convenient installation; but it is not easy to estimate the accuracy of ultrasonic flowmeter, and there is not even a acknowledged estimation method when its installation requirements are not satisfied. Aiming at the accuracy of the ultrasonic flowmeter installed in 3-Gorge power station, both experiment method and CFD method are introduced to analyze the effect of the complex flow field on the metering performance. Reduced scaled (1:24) experiment system has been built, and a series of cases have been studied, which show the flow error related to the complex flow field is about 0.3%. Penstock flow field of 3-Gorge has been simulated, and the flow error calculated is close to the experiment result. The uncertainty of experimental results and the 3-Gorge flowmeter performance are further considered, and then it was concluded that the accuracy of flowmeter is better than 1%, indicating that the flowmeter can meet the requirements of the turbine performance testing in 3-Gorge Power Station.
Keywords:
3-Gorge, ultrasonic flowmeter, accuracy, installation condition
Download:
IMEKO-TC9-2010-089.pdf
DOI:
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