UBC Instructor: Dr.

Claire Yan
Lab Section: L1G

APSC 253 Fluid Mechanics

W2017

Lab 2
Measuring Fluid Flow
Produced By:
Fraser, Keynan (20502167)
Dunlop, Rhianna (41474883)
Kennedy, Andrew (24525157)
Raja Rosli, Raja Kamaluddin (54731161)
Group #4

School of Engineering
University of British Columbia Okanagan
2018-02-7

This paper was prepared by group 4 of the 2017 Fluid Mechanics laboratory winter section. The
data provided was measured under the laboratory guidance of Pouria Mehradi

Table of Contents

1
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

Objective 3

Introduction 3

Theory 3

Resulting data and calculations 4

Discussion 7
Conclusion 7
References 8

2
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

Objective
The objective of this experiment is to explore flow metering through the fundamental
concepts, operation, and attributes of the Orifice meter, Venturi tube, and Pitot tube.
Understanding these instruments will allow us to relate our pressure data to the flow rate using
Bernoulli’s equation.

Introduction
A number of different flow meters have been produced for the intent of flow metering. Some
commonly used flow meters for liquids in pipes are the Orifice meter, Venturi tube, Pitot tube, nozzle,
variable area meter, water meter and measuring tank. In this experiment, we will focus on the Orifice
meter, Venturi tube, and Pitot tube and calculate the flow of various value positions.

Theory
Flow meters measure the differential pressure within its constriction and calculate the rate using
bernoulli's equation. Throttling increases the fluid's velocity (rate) but decreases its pressure due to
bernoulli's principle. Flow meters measure the upstream and downstream pressure of the constriction
relating the difference in bernoulli's equation to determine the fluid flow. “Bernoulli’s equation states that
the pressure drop across the constriction is proportional to the square of the flow rate.”[1]

Resulting data and calculations

Table 1 - Measured and Calculated Values for Orifice Meter

3
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

No. Flow Rate Tapping Tapping Difference Re laminar/ 𝐶 𝐶,𝐶

(m/s) 25 (mm) 24 (mm) (m) turbulent

1 0.000237 588 512 0.076 15035.3998 turbulent 0.500569

005

2 0.00027 557 464 0.093 17128.9364 turbulent 0.466025

8 86

3 0.00036 600 496 0.104 22838.5819 turbulent 0.555646

8 218

Table 2 - Measured and Calculated Values for Venturi Meter

No. Flow Rate Tapping Tapping Difference Re laminar/ 𝐶 𝐶,𝐶
(m/s) 29 (mm) 28 (mm) (m) turbulent

1 0.000237 522 451 0.071 18781.1657 turbulent 0.924152

4 207

2 0.00027 483 402 0.081 21396.2647 turbulent 0.985701

7 887

3 0.00036 441 296 0.145 28528.3530 turbulent 0.982297

2 035

Table 3 - Measured and Calculated Values for Pitot Tube

Flow Rate = 0.360 × 10 −3 𝐶 3 /𝐶
Pitot Radius Upstream Down- Pressure Flow uxr Trapezo-
Position from Tapping Stream head diff. Velocity (m2/s) idal Rule
(mm) Centre (mm) Tapping (m water) u (m/s) (𝐶𝐶𝐶𝐶)
(mm) (mm)

4
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

10.935 0 585 665 0.08 1.252836 0

781

8.925 2 587 667 0.08 1.252836 0.002505 6.26418E

781 674 -07

6.925 4 586 666 0.08 1.252836 0.005011 1.87926E

781 347 -06

4.925 6 588 665 0.077 1.229121 0.007374 3.72294E

638 73 -06

2.925 8 591 662 0.071 1.180262 0.009442 6.08346E

683 101 -06

2.425 8.5 592 660 0.068 1.155058 0.009817 3.41518E

44 997 -05

1.925 9 593 659 0.066 1.137945 0.010241 4.43934E

517 51 -05

1.425 9.5 584 657 0.073 1.196770 0.011369 5.57627E

655 321 -05

0.925 10 596 656 0.06 1.084988 0.010849 6.66126E

479 885 -05
Table 4 - Measured VS Calculated Flow Rate

Measured Flow Rate (m3/s) Theory Flow Rate Percent Difference

0.0013391 0.00036 271.97%

5
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

Sample calculations
Test 1

Test 2

Discussion
1)

6
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

Figure 1
As the coefficient of discharge for orifice increases, the Reynolds number also increases.
They have approximately linear relationship between them. The coefficient of discharge for
venturi remains fairly constant as the Reynolds number increases. There appears to be an
inaccuracy in the coefficient of discharge for venturi as one of the value is greater than 1. This is
because flow rate gauge was fluctuating and it made it difficult to observe proper reading. The
coefficient for orifice is originally 0.601 which is approximately close to most our values, while
the coefficient for venturi is originally 0.9 and the measure values are approximately similar as
well.

2)

7
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

Figure 2
As we can observe in figure 2, the velocity is roughly constant, thus making it a laminar
flow. The Reynold’s number was observed to be between 631 and 740, both of which are less
than 4000, confirming the relationship shown by the graph of laminar flow.

3) The advantages of the Venturi tube:

· Enhanced pressure recovery
· Low permanent pressure loss
· Robust
· Less affected by upstream flow disturbance
The disadvantages of the Venturi Tube:
· Expensive
· Cannot be used for lower Reynolds number ( less than 150 000)
· Cannot be used for pipes which have length lower than 76.2 mm

The advantages of the Orifice Tube:

· Simple design
· Requires minimum space
· Inexpensive
The disadvantages of the Orifice Tube:
· Pressure recovery is limited
· Cannot be used for applications that cannot allow large pressure drops
The advantages of Pitot Tube:
· Easily removable from the pipe
· Can be installed easily
The disadvantages of Pitot Tube:
· Cannot be used if the fluid experiences upstream disturbances
8
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

· Poor accuracy relative to other measuring devices for measuring flow

4) The possible sources of error would be that the flow rate gauge was fluctuating at higher
flow rates. This led to wrong readings for the flow rate which effected the calculations. So, we
could have done our experiment at lower flow rates to achieve better accuracy. We could also
measure the flow rate manually using volumetric flask. A certain volume of water can be
measured in a measured time and thus the flow rate can be calculated. 5 values can be measured,
and the average can be calculated for better accuracy. Another source of error would the parallax
error while reading the water height.

Conclusion
As a group we were able to successfully explore fluid flow rates while changing the
pressure via an Orifice meter, Venturi meter, and pitot tube. We were able to see the relationship
between bernoulli's equation and the effect of velocity. During the lab we were able to build a
greater understanding of fluid mechanics and advance our experience using fluid pipeline
systems.

9
 Lab 2
Fluid Flow Rate

References
[1] “Differential Pressure Flowmeter Technology,” Differential Pressure Flowmeter
Technology - Flowmeters.com | Universal Flow Monitors. [Online]. Available:
http://www.flowmeters.com/differential-pressure-technology.

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