Continuous fluid flow measurement

The measurement of fluid flow is possibly the single most complex type of process variable
measurement in all of industrial instrumentation

(Not only is there a confusing arrangement of technologies one might use to measure fluid flow also
each one with its own limitations)

Flow may refer to:

1. volumetric flow -the number of fluid volumes passing by per unit time
2. mass flow -the number of fluid mass units passing by per unit time
3. standardized volumetric flow- the number of gas volumes flowing, supposing different pressure and
temperature values than what the actual process line operates at
(It is usually the most useful measure of gas flow because it defines the mass flow, number of
molecules, and heat-carrying capacity of the gas)

Flowmeters (or flow sensor) is an instrument used to measure linear, nonlinear, mass or volumetric
flow rate of a liquid or a gas

Most flow measurement technologies cannot achieve respectable measurement linearity from the
maximum rated flow all the way to zero flow, no matter how well matched they might be to the process
application

(hindi sya accurate like sa mga temperature sensor, so dito lagi syang merong percentage flow error,
pero Furthermore, the performance of most flowmeter technologies critically depends on proper
installation, One cannot simply hang a flowmeter at any location in a piping system and expect it to
function as designed)

This is a constant source of conflict between piping (mechanical) engineers and instrumentation
(controls) engineers on large industrial projects

(In many cases the flowmeter equipment gets installed improperly and the instrument technicians have
to deal with the resulting measurement problems during process unit start-up)

Even after a flowmeter has been properly selected for the process application and properly installed in
the piping, problems may arise due to changes in process fluid properties (density, viscosity,
conductivity), or the presence of impurities in the process fluid.

Flowmeters are also subject to much more “wear and tear” than most other primary sensing elements

(flowmeter’s sensing element(s) must lie directly in the path of potentially abrasive fluid streams-
minerals or inorganic substances)

Pressure-based flowmeters

Concept:
All masses require force to accelerate. This is quantitatively expressed by Newton’s Second Law of
Motion.

The second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables - the net force
acting upon the object and the mass of the object

All fluids possess mass, and therefore require force to accelerate just like solid masses.

If we consider a quantity of fluid confined inside a pipe ,

The fluid quantity having a mass equal to its volume multiplied by its mass density (m = ρV , where ρ is
the fluid’s mass per unit volume), the force required to accelerate that fluid “plug” would be calculated
just the same as for a solid mass.

Since this accelerating force is applied on the cross-sectional area of the fluid plug, we may express it as
a pressure, the definition of pressure is force per unit area:
This tells us we can accelerate a “plug” of fluid by applying a difference of pressure across its length