New switching gate diverter valve for large flow measurement systems

Abstract

Testing water meters is essential for efficient management of water resources, and compliance with regulations, water utilities should have a regular testing schedule to ensure that they are providing accurate readings. This highlights the importance of creating and installing water meter test benches that enable accurate calibration for laboratories, industries, and water meter manufacturers. The diverter is an essential part of a flow meter calibration system, and its compliance with standards, is crucial. These standards emphasize the need for quick diversion of flow without changing the flow-rate during the measuring interval. To accomplish this, complex, expensive and large flow diverters are typically utilized, which incorporate a manifold that homogenizes the liquid and produces a sheet of water at atmospheric pressure. This work presents a new diverter switch valve that fulfils with the technical characteristics of a flow diverter established in the international standards, it does not require any nozzle or fishtail transition and it works without long atmospheric liquid sheet. The experiments carried out with different diversion systems compare the results using a conventional design and the new valve. Good repeatability and acceptable uncertainty are obtained using both systems. Hence, this innovative diverter valve presents an opportunity to minimize the size and lower the costs of facilities, thereby enabling a reevaluation of the design, installation, and commissioning of laboratories dedicated to flow meter calibration.