Investigation on pressure-tapping methods of long waist cone flow meter using CFD simulation

Abstract

Differential pressure (DP) flow meters are playing an increasingly important role in multiphase flow in petroleum industry. The long waist cone flow meter, as a new type of DP flow meter, is introduced in this paper. And its flow field in a horizontal pipe of 50mm diameter is numerically simulated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), in search of the optimum pressure-tapping method. The results of numerical simulations indicate that the long waist cone flow meter has the merits of the annular channel flow meters by forming an annular flow in annular channel region, which makes it possible to improve the repeatability and accuracy of measurement. The high pressure port at the 1D upstream of the cone's entrance section and the low pressure port at the middle of annular channel region and 3D downstream of the cone's exit section are the optimum pressure-tapping methods. The relative error of discharge coefficient is within ±0.5%. This investigation will provide a theoretical and design basis for the development of new DP flow meters.