Estimation of uncertainty of mean velocity of flue gas in a conduit as determined by the traverse method within the gravimetric measurement of particulate concentration

Abstract

In gravimetric measurements of dust emissions from industrial technological plants, the required mean gas velocity in a conduit is often determined by Pitot traverse method. It is commonly seen as a method giving good approximate values of mean gas velocity, although the actual rate of this approximation is not considered in the analysis of measurement results. It was seen that there was a need to establish what magnitude of error might occur in practice due to the small number of measurement points and typical non-uniformity of the gas velocity profiles in conduits of rectangular cross-section. The calculations were based on the concept of treating a measurement plane as one consisting of a set of elementary planes. The elementary gas velocity profiles in these elementary planes were simulated, the mean velocity for these profiles were calculated based on point velocity values, and the measurement uncertainty of this mean velocity determined. This uncertainty results in the uncertainty of the mean velocity across the entire measurement plane. It appears that, depending on the number of measurement points and gas velocity profile non-uniformity, the value is not small and is of the order of several percent, and hence needs to be taken into account in the budget of the combined uncertainty of mean velocity, which in turn contributes to the uncertainty of gas volumetric flow rate and dust pollutant mass flow rate.