Implementation of Double-Timing Pulse Interpolation Applied to Compact Piston Provers

Abstract

This work presents an electronic circuit for double-timing pulse interpolation applied to compact piston provers (also referred as small volume provers). Compact provers are usually employed to prove meters with pulsed outputs. API and ISO standards [1,2] recommend a minimum of 10.000 pulses per run to obtain a resolution better than ± 0.01%. Since the volume of fluid displaced by a compact prover is relatively small, the number of pulses produced during a proving run is often considerably less than 10.000 pulses. Pulse interpolation techniques are commonly used to increase resolution and to diminish uncertainty during a proving run by estimating the fractional part of meter pulses within the time interval of the calibration. In this way, pulse interpolation techniques are essential to obtain accurate flow measurements and to allow the calibration of meters with compact provers.
 Our implementation uses a compact piston prover with an internal volume of 12 L and maximum flow capacity of 180 L/min. In order to implement the double-timing pulse interpolation method, we have used a Pentium D, 2.80 GHz installed with a 16-bit counter/timer board. Data acquisition and control software were written using VB .Net. An electronic circuitry was built to activate/deactivate counters gates, and to collect pulses. Some requirements and limitations of pulse interpolation techniques such as circuitry testing and pulse stability are also discussed in this work.