Parallel pressure differential (PPD) type laminar flow sensing technique was invented several years ago to reduce nonlinear effect in a traditional laminar flow element (LFE). In this paper, the internal flow of each branch in a PPD LFE is numerically simulated for gas flow. The results show that the relative deviation of the pressure drops of the two branches in a PPD LFE is within ±0.05% as inlet mass flow being the same, indicating that the flow resistance characteristics of the two branches are consistent, which means that the hypothesis of a same flow rate for the two branches in a real PPD LFE is tenable. There is little difference, ±0.01%, in the local pressure losses of the two upstream capillaries outlet flows, which can be ignored in a real measurement, further verifying that the theoretical analysis of the PPD principle is reliable. Capillary length effect in a PPD LFE is also examined. The bigger capillary length, the higher measurement precision can be achieved for a certain length range. For instance, it is suggested that the length of the short components should not be shorter than the laminar flow dimensionless entrance length defined by Xe (Le/d/Re, where Le is the entrance length) = 0.035, for flow measurement uncertainty within ±1.0%. The simulation and experiment results of gas flow show that the suitable value of Kexp is 1, and in the flow range of (0.0256–5.2985) m3/h measurement error of a PPD LFE is within ±0.8% only with expansion correction, indicating that the PPD laminar flow measurement technique is suitable for the gas flow.
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