Experimental Study of Various Porosity of Fractal Flow Conditioner for Orifice Plate Flowmeters

Abstract

The plant industry is required to measure flow rate more accurately to meet plant operation and cost accounting objectives. The opposing concern of improving flow meter accuracy is resolved by using flow conditioners. The distance of implementation of flow conditioner upstream of the orifice plate flowmeter is also need to be addressed. Hence, in present study, an analysis of the porosity of fractal flow conditioner towards orifice plate flowmeter’s accuracy and the best distance of fractal flow conditioner upstream of the orifice plate flowmeter was determined. In an experimental work, a different porosity of the fractal flow conditioners were installed with different distance upstream of the orifice plate in conjunction with the different disturbances to assess the effects of these devices on the measurement of the mass flow rate. Data gained for all the plates showed that there is increment of pressure drop and change in discharge coefficient of the orifice with lower β value of fractal flow conditioner. Good comparisons with the previous experimental work demonstrate the fractal flow conditioner can preserve the accuracy of metering up to the level required in the standards.