Volumetric Flow Rate Measurements Research Articles

Window frame integrable air recuperation minichannel/minigap heat exchanger

This article describes an evaluation of mini heat exchangers operation as a decentralized mechanical ventilation system with recuperative heat recovery that can be integrated into the window frame. The relatively small yet efficient air recuperation system allows for retrofitting existing buildings by reducing the overall energy consumption and thus the CO2 emissions. The proposed design, unlike existing systems, is easy to scale up to various room sizes and is a promising solution for buildings where a centralized recuperation system cannot be implemented or interfering with the building’s facade is not allowed. Theexperimental research was carried out enabling to collect temperature, pressure drop, and volumetric flow rate measurements in a recuperation system with various minigeometries, namely minichannels withahydraulic diameter of 3.00 mm, minigaps with a hydraulic diameter of 5.82 mm, and minigaps withahydraulic diameter of 1.98 mm. The system was tested for a room air temperature of 22 °C and three values of outside air temperatures, namely 5 °C, 10 °C, and 15 °C. The volumetric flow rate for a single heat exchanger ranged from 4.1 m3/h to 20.4 m3/h. The results showed that higher temperature rise of supplied air andhigher energy efficiency of the heat recovery can be achieved for smaller airflows and higher differences between outside and room temperatures. For an exemplary 34 m2 office room, the 0.8-fold air exchange rate can be provided and 1 667.1kWh of annual energy savings can be achieved, corresponding to 50.3 % of total energy required for heating the air. Heat exchangers equipped with 3.00 mm minichannels recover a similar amount of heat as the ones equipped with 5.82 mm minigaps, even though the hydraulic diameter ofthe minichannel is almost 2 times smaller. Meanwhile, a 5.82 mm minigap reduces the pressure drop by 76 % compared to a 3.00 mm minichannel.

Yakınsak-Konik Nozulların Giriş ve Çıkış Çaplarının İtme Kuvveti ve Hacimsel Debi Üzerindeki Etkisinin Teorik, Nümerik ve Deneysel İncelemesi

It is possible to see convergent conical type nozzles everywhere, from daily life to rocket science. They are utilized as the main part of the propulsion system in many applications such as air blow guns for spraying, steam turbines for compression, rockets for thrust generation, satellites for altitude control and so on. Although the convergent conical nozzle is a well-known nozzle, there are few studies on the effects of geometric changes by comparing more than one approach together. Therefore, this study investigates thrust and volumetric flow rate for different inlet and exit diameters of the convergent conical nozzles theoretically, numerically and experimentally. In this study, the quasi-one-dimensional Euler equations are defined for the theoretical investigation of convergent conical nozzles. However, in this approach, many important features such as viscous losses are neglected. In fact, nozzle flows have highly complex features including shock waves, turbulence, and boundary layers due to compressible effects. Thus, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations are performed with ANSYS Fluent for numerical investigation of the nozzle in this study. CFD simulations provide a better understanding and illustration of convergent conical type nozzle flows. For a third approach, the experimental investigation is conducted for thrust and volumetric flow rate measurements. Theoretical and numerical results are compared with the experimental results and similarity ratios are defined to find the closest to the experimental results.

Effect of the Volumetric Flow Rate Measurement Methodology of Positive Pressure Ventilators on the Parameters of the Drive Unit

The nature and conditions of the execution of tests (open or duct flow) in terms of evaluating the flow rate generated by positive pressure ventilators (PPV) may affect the parameters of the drive unit recorded during testing. In this article, popular PPVs (conventional type—W1 and turbo type—W2) of about 4.2 kW were tested under open flow (Method A) and duct flow (Method B) conditions. During the tests, engine load values were recorded: torque, speed, horsepower and, using portable emissions measurement systems (PEMS), exhaust gas emissions: carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrocarbons (HC), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and fuel consumption. Depending on the method used to measure ventilator flow rates, drive units can have different drive power requirements (from 3.2% to 4.5%). Changes in drive unit operating conditions induced by the flow measurement method are observed in the results of fuel consumption (from 0.65% to 9.8%) and emissions of harmful exhaust compounds: CO2 up to 2.4%, CO up to 67%, HC up to 93.2% and NOx up to 37%. The drive units of turbo type fans (W2) are more susceptible to the influence of the test methods in terms of flow assessment, where they have higher emissions of harmful exhaust gases when tested by Method A. Flow measurement methods affect the oscillation of propulsion power, which contributes to disturbances in the control of the fuel–air mixture composition. The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of testing methods for measuring the flow rate of positive pressure ventilators on the performance of the drive unit.

Simultaneous Measurement of Volumetric Flowrates of Gas-Liquid Bubbly Flow Using a Turbine Flowmeter.

The flowrate measurement of the gas-liquid two-phase flow frequently observed in industrial equipment, such as in heat exchangers and reactors, is critical to enable the precise monitoring and operation of the equipment. Furthermore, certain applications, such as oil and natural gas processing plants, require the accurate measurements of the flowrates of each phase simultaneously. This study presents a method that can simultaneously measure the volumetric flowrates of each phase of gas and liquid two-phase mixtures, Qg and Ql, respectively, without separating the phases. The method employs a turbine flowmeter and two pressure sensors connected to the pipes upstream and downstream of the turbine flowmeter. By measuring the rotational speed of the rotor and the pressure loss across the flowmeter, the flowrate of the two-phase mixtures Qtp = (Qg + Ql) and the gas volumetric flowrate ratio β = (Qg/Qtp) are determined. The values of Qg and Ql are calculated as βQtp and (1 - β)Qtp. This study also investigates the measurement accuracies for air-water two-phase flows at 0.67 × 10-3 ≤ Qtp ≤ 1.67 × 10-3 m3/s and β ≤ 0.1, concluding that the full-scale accuracies of Qtp, β, Qg, and Ql are 3.1%, 4.8%, 3.9%, and 3%, respectively. These accuracies either match or improve the accuracies of similar methods reported in the literature, indicating that the proposed method is a viable solution for the determination of phase-specific flowrates in gas-liquid two-phase mixtures.

Proposal of a novel approach to reference instrument and procedure definition to measure hydrogen volume and volumetric flow in a legal metrology framework

International standards concerning hydrogen measurement in legal frameworks are still lacking. This study proposes a novel approach to instrument and procedure definition for the legal measurement of pure hydrogen volume and volumetric flow rate according to main international standards of metrology. A wet drum meter filled with water is chosen as reference meter. The selected reference instrumentation and procedures are replicable in other laboratories. Simulations and calculations demonstrate that hydrogen diffusivity in water have no influence on error estimations, while water evaporation is considered because it affects the volumetric flow rate measurement. The expanded uncertainty of the total metrological chain is less than 0.25%. This reference procedure allows to perform tests for error of indication of new meters both using hydrogen and other flowing gases with the same measurement principle, instrumentation and procedures, helping the development and certification processes of new products useful for the upcoming energy transition.

Computational methods for leakage localisation in a vacuum bag using volumetric flow rate measurements

The localisation of leakages during the vacuum bagging process of a composite is currently time intensive and reliant on human labour. The purpose of this article is to explore four computational methods for leakage localisation using volumetric flow rate (VFR) data to increase the automation of the process. The data used in this article is based on experiments on a square vacuum bag with four vacuum ports. The first method is based on potential flow theory to simulate the flow. In the second method, numerical regression was applied to find a relation between the VFRs and port-leakage distances. The third method consisted of calculating the fractional VFRs for every point on a grid and finding the grid point whose values most closely correspond to the observed fractional VFRs. The last method involved training a machine learning algorithm with experimental data. After the development of the methods, their performance was tested over the entire single-leakage dataset and compared. The results were in the same order of magnitude for all methods, with an area of 10^5 mm^2 for the 95% confidence interval and a distance of 10^2 mm for the average error. Further research is required for application to different vacuum bag shapes and multiple leakages cases. The method with the highest adaptability and performance is the method based on potential-flow theory. Machine learning and the potential-flow method is further applicable to multiple leakage localisation.

Prognosis of ischemia recurrence in patients with moderate intracranial atherosclerotic disease using quantitative MRA measurements.

To investigate the relation between delayed ischemic stroke and the intracranial atherosclerotic disease (ICAD) hemodynamics as determined by Non-invasive Optimal Vessel Analysis (NOVA) MRI measurements. Thirty-three patients with ICAD were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent clinically indicated angioplasty followed by 2-dimensional phase contrast MR (2D PCMR) performed on a 3.0 Tesla MRI scanner using either a 16-channel neurovascular coil or 32-channel head coil. The volumetric flow rate measurements were calculated from 2D PCMR with Non-invasive Optimal Vessel Analysis (NOVA) software (VasSol, Chicago, IL, USA). Flow rate measurements were obtained in 20 major arteries distal, proximal and within the Circle of Willis. Patients were followed up for six month, and ischemia reoccurrence and location were recorded. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed using flow rates measurements in the ipsilateral side of the ischemic event occurrence. Complete set of measurements was achieved in n=34. Left and right hemisphere ischemia recurrence was observed in seven and three cases respectively. Best predictor of ischemic event reoccurrence was flow rate in the middle cerebral artery with area under the ROC of 0.821±0.109. This is an effectiveness study to determine whether blood flow measurements in the intracranial vasculature may be predictive of future ischemic events. Our results demonstrated significant correlation between the blood flow measurements using 2D PCMR processed with the NOVA software and the reoccurrence of ischemia. These results support further investigation for using this method for risk stratification of ICAD patients.

A small-volume microcapillary rheometer.

We demonstrate a capillary device used to measure the shear rate-dependent viscosity of microliter scale volumes. Liquid samples are driven pneumatically through a microcapillary and partially fill a larger glass capillary. The glass capillary is mounted on an optical linear sensor to track the air-liquid meniscus in real time and trigger the reversal of flow direction by switching a pneumatic valve. Each transit provides a volumetric flow rate measurement, which is used with the pressure drop to determine viscosity as a function of shear rate. A given sample of at least 50 μL can be measured over at least 2 to 3 decades in shear rate, in the range of 10 to 105 s-1, and be essentially fully recovered. Validation by comparison to reference measurements is performed using samples of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid, with viscosity ranging from 1 to 100 mPa s. The range of operation and uncertainty arising from instrumentation, meniscus effects, and inertial effects are discussed. The performance of this rheometer is advantageous, especially for use and reuse of small volumes.

Novel Approach to Reference Instrument Selection and Procedure Definition for the Measurement of Hydrogen Volume and Volumetric Flow Rate in a Legal Framework

Novel Approach to Reference Instrument Selection and Procedure Definition for the Measurement of Hydrogen Volume and Volumetric Flow Rate in a Legal Framework

Volumetric Flow Estimation in a Coronary Artery Phantom Using High-Frame-Rate Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound, Speckle Decorrelation, and Doppler Flow Direction Detection.

The coronary flow reserve (CFR), relating to the volumetric flow rate, is an effective functional parameter to assess the stenosis in the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. We have recently proposed to use high-frame-rate (HFR) contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) to estimate the volumetric flow rate using ultrasound (US) speckle decorrelation (SDC) without any assumptions about the velocity profile. However, this method still has challenges in imaging deep and small vessels, such as LAD. In this study, we proposed to address the challenges and demonstrate the feasibility of volumetric flow rate measurement in a coronary mimicking phantom with pulsatile flow using a 1-D array cardiac probe, vector Doppler, and an optimal probe rotation/tilting for flow direction detection. Both simulations and in vitro experiments were conducted to validate the proposed method. It is shown that in-plane velocities estimated by vector Doppler under a 10° probe tilting resulted in smaller percentage error (+5.2%) in flow rate estimates than that in US imaging velocimetry (-20.2%) although their relative standard deviations were very close, being 2.6 and 2.8 ml/min, respectively. The flow rate estimated by SDC without direction detection had an error higher than 70%. A 10° tilting of the probe had the best results in flow rate estimation compared to the 5° or 15° tilting. Realistic global motions in the LAD increased the flow rate estimation error from 5.2% to 14.2%. It is concluded that it is feasible to measure the volumetric flow rate in a coronary artery flow phantom with a conventional cardiac probe, using HFR acquisition, Doppler, and SDC analysis. Potentially, this technique could also be applied to investigate the volumetric flow rate in other small vessels similar to the LAD.

Personal Metabolic Fuel Sensor

The advent of miniature low power sensors for gas concentration, temperature, humidity, and volumetric flow rate measurement has enabled the development of a metabolic fuel and energy sensor which is sufficiently small in size, easy to use, and low cost to support personal ownership for on-demand metabolic measurement and tracking. The sensor is ~100× smaller than conventional metabolic carts and utilizes a novel passive proportional valveless breath sampling architecture to support on-demand measurement of fuel substrate utilization and energy expenditure over the full range of activity from rest to intense exercise. The sensor functions over the full range of humidity and temperatures above freezing, and does not require consumables. The accuracy and measurement range are demonstrated by means of a controlled mechanical breathing simulator and independently validated in a human subject study which compared the sensor measurements to a gold-standard clinical metabolic cart.

An Uncertainties Simulation Model Applied to an Automated Laminar Flowmeter

Aircraft oxygen regulators are a normally used specialized test bench designed to perform tests to the regulators during its work conditions. The tests are performed placing the regulator in the barometric chamber, where low pressure conditions are forced to simulate altitude conditions and then a flow is forced on the output of the regulator to simulate the inhalation of the user. The relevant test flows are measured by laminar flowmeters. These flowmeters are meant to measure the flowrate at pressures correspondent to altitudes between sea level altitude and fifty thousand feet. In this work a way was studied to automate laminar flowmeters used on oxygen regulator test benches. For this purpose, was developed a data acquisition system (DAS) using a microcontroller board and two microelectromechanical systems—MEMSs (a pressure and temperature sensor and a differential pressure sensor). Since these MEMSs did not have factory calibration, they were calibrated in this study. The automated flowmeter was also calibrated. To estimate the error of flow rate measured by this solution, an uncertainties simulation model based on the Monte Carlo method and several calibrations were performed. According to the automated flowmeter calibration, the uncertainty obtained (±0.45% fs) is accepted, but the authors only recommend its use for actual volumetric flowrate measurements.

Measurement of Flow Volume in the Presence of Reverse Flow with Ultrasound Speckle Decorrelation

Direct measurement of volumetric flow rate in the cardiovascular system with ultrasound is valuable but has been a challenge because most current 2-D flow imaging techniques are only able to estimate the flow velocity in the scanning plane (in-plane). Our recent study demonstrated that high frame rate contrast ultrasound and speckle decorrelation (SDC) can be used to accurately measure the speed of flow going through the scanning plane (through-plane). The volumetric flow could then be calculated by integrating over the luminal area, when the blood vessel was scanned from the transverse view. However, a key disadvantage of this SDC method is that it cannot distinguish the direction of the through-plane flow, which limited its applications to blood vessels with unidirectional flow. Physiologic flow in the cardiovascular system could be bidirectional due to its pulsatility, geometric features, or under pathologic situations. In this study, we proposed a method to distinguish the through-plane flow direction by inspecting the flow within the scanning plane from a tilted transverse view. This method was tested on computer simulations and experimental flow phantoms. It was found that the proposed method could detect flow direction and improved the estimation of the flow volume, reducing the overestimation from over 100% to less than 15% when there was flow reversal. This method showed significant improvement over the current SDC method in volume flow estimation and can be applied to a wider range of clinical applications where bidirectional flow exists.

Thermal performance characterisation of a reverse-flow energy recovery ventilator for a residential building application

The European Union’s 2020 and 2030 sustainable energy policies seek significant reductions in both energy consumption and carbon emissions. These policies demand a greater use of energy efficient technologies and a transition away from fossil fuels. This paper studies one such technology, an indoor climate control system with a reverse-flow enthalpy recovery ventilator, capable of recovering both sensible and latent heat. The thermal performance characteristics are established using an experimental facility and calculation methods defined by European Standard EN 13141-7:2010. This involves measurement of temperature, humidity, pressure and volumetric air flow rates over a range of operating conditions. Total thermal energy recovery rates ranged from 0.63 kW to 2.2 kW, with energy recovery efficiency of 72.8 % to 88.6 %. The recovery efficiency ratio, which reflects the capacity of the indoor climate control system to recover thermal energy relative to its power consumption ranged between 6.87 to 19.97. Due to the unique reverse-flow defrost function, the system demonstrates operation down to -7 °C without frost formation. These results highlight the potential that this system can make towards the EU goals of reducing energy consumption, operating costs and carbon emissions associated with indoor climate control.

Industrial radiotracer application in flow rate measurement and flowmeter calibration using 99mTc and 198Au nanoparticles radioisotope

The flow rate or fluid velocity measurement is important to maintain fluid flow quality performance in the systems. This study focuses on determination of volumetric flow rate measurement and to calibrate the conventional flowmeter using industrial radiotracer approach in quadrilateral gas-liquid bubble column reactor. In this work, two different radioisotopes which emit γ-ray have been chosen as radioactive tracer which is 99mTc produced from 99Mo/99mTc radioisotope generator and 198Au nanoparticle form neutron activation at research nuclear reactor TRIGA Mark II. Both radioisotopes representing liquid and solid tracer purposely designed for tracing liquid flow. The peak to peak radiotracer method known as pulse velocity method was applied to determine the volumetric flow rate. The radiation signals were monitored using 4 unit NaI scintillation detectors located at 4 different points nearby the inlet and outlet of the quadrilateral bubble column reactor process stream. The water volume inside the bubble column reactor was fixed at 0.04 m3 and liquid flow rates in this reactor were specified on installed flowmeter at different reference value which is 4 lpm, 8 lpm, and 12 lpm, respectively. The experimental result shows very good linearity and repeatability by following the theoretical equations with less uncertainty in volumetric flow rate measurement. The obtained results also validated the effectiveness of the proposed method for the installed flowmeter calibration efficiency.

Sewer Discharge Estimation by Stereoscopic Imaging and Synchronized Frame Processing

AbstractA system for fully automatic contact‐less image‐based measurement of volumetric flow rate in urban drainage structures is presented. The hardware includes two original equipment manufacturer cameras and a single‐board computer on which our custom image processing software is running. The value of water discharge depends on the surface velocity, water level and channel's geometry. The level of the flow is estimated as the difference between distances from the camera to the water surface and from the camera to the channel's bottom. Camera‐to‐water distance is recovered automatically using large‐scale stereo‐matching, whereas the distance to the channel's bottom is measured upon installation. Surface velocity is calculated using cross‐correlation template matching: individual natural particles in the flow are detected and tracked throughout the sequence of images recorded over a fixed time interval. The relative discharge computation error is lower than 1.34% of the theoretical maximal discharge for a given location, which makes our system competitive to commercial components such as ultrasonic flow meters, while using cheaper technologies.

Bubble nucleation in superhydrophobic microchannels due to subcritical heating

This work experimentally studies the effects of single wall heating on laminar flow in a high-aspect ratio superhydrophobic microchannel. When water that is saturated with air is used as the working liquid, the non-wetted cavities on the superhydrophobic surfaces act as nucleation sites and allow air to effervesce out of the water and onto the surface when heated. Previous works in the literature have only considered the opposite case where the water is undersaturated and absorbs air out the cavities for a microchannel setting. The microchannel considered in this work consists of a rib/cavity structured superhydrophobic surface and a glass surface separated by spacers. The microchannel is 60 mm long by 14 mm wide and two channel heights of nominally 183 μm and 366 μm are explored. The superhydrophobic side is in contact with a heated aluminum block and a camera is used to visualize the flow through the glass side. Thermocouples are embedded in the aluminum to record the temperature profile along the length of the channel. Temperatures are maintained below the boiling temperature of the working liquid. The friction factor-Reynolds product (fRe) is obtained via pressure drop and volumetric flow-rate measurements. Five surface types/configurations are investigated: smooth hydrophilic, smooth hydrophobic, superhydrophobic with ribs perpendicular to the flow, superhydrophobic with ribs parallel to the flow, and superhydrophobic with ribs parallel to the flow with several breaker ridges perpendicular to the flow. The surface type/configuration has a significant impact on the mass transport dynamics. For surfaces with closed cell micro-structures, large bubbles eventually form and adversely affect fRe and lead to higher temperatures along the channel. When degassed water is used, no bubble nucleation is observed and the air initially trapped in the superhydrophobic cavities is quickly absorbed by the water.

Streaming potential of superhydrophobic microchannels.

For the purpose of gaining larger streaming potential, it has been suggested to employ superhydrophobic microchannels with a large velocity slip. There are two kinds of superhydrophobic surfaces, one having a smooth wall with a large Navier slip coefficient caused by the hydrophobicity of the wall material, and the other having a periodic array of no- shear slots of air pockets embedded in a nonslip wall. The electrokinetic flows over these two superhydrophobic surfaces are modelled using the Navier-Stokes equation and convection-diffusion equations of the ionic species. The Navier slip coefficient of the first kind surfaces and the no-shear slot ratio of the second kind surfaces are similar in the sense that the volumetric flow rate increases as these parameter values increase. However, although the streaming potential increases monotonically with respect to the Navier slip coefficient, it reaches a maximum and afterward decreases as the no-shear ratio increases. The results of the present investigation imply that the characterization of superhydrophobic surfaces employing only the measurement of volumetric flow rate against pressure drop is not appropriate and the fine structure of the superhydrophobic surfaces must be verified before predicting the streaming potential and electrokinetic flows accurately.

In vivo label-free measurement of lymph flow velocity and volumetric flow rates using Doppler optical coherence tomography.

Direct in vivo imaging of lymph flow is key to understanding lymphatic system function in normal and disease states. Optical microscopy techniques provide the resolution required for these measurements, but existing optical techniques for measuring lymph flow require complex protocols and provide limited temporal resolution. Here, we describe a Doppler optical coherence tomography platform that allows direct, label-free quantification of lymph velocity and volumetric flow rates. We overcome the challenge of very low scattering by employing a Doppler algorithm that operates on low signal-to-noise measurements. We show that this technique can measure lymph velocity at sufficiently high temporal resolution to resolve the dynamic pulsatile flow in collecting lymphatic vessels.

Steady-state CFD simulations of an EPR™ reactor pressure vessel: A validation study based on the JULIETTE experiments

Validating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models against experimental measurements is a fundamental step towards a broader acceptance of CFD as a tool for reactor safety analysis when best-estimate one-dimensional thermal-hydraulic codes present strong modelling limitations.In the present paper numerical results of steady-state RANS analyses are compared to pressure, volumetric flow rate and concentration distribution measurements in different locations of an Areva EPR™ reactor pressure vessel (RPV) mock-up named JULIETTE. Several flow configurations are considered: Three different total volumetric flow rates, cold leg velocity field with or without swirl, three or four reactor coolant pumps functioning. Investigations on the influence of two types of inlet boundary profiles (i.e. flat or 1/7th power-law) and the turbulent Schmidt number have shown that the first affects sensibly the pressure loads at the core barrel whereas the latter parameter strongly affects the transport and the mixing of the tracer (passive scalar) and consequently its distribution at the core inlet. Furthermore, the introduction of an integral parameter as the swirl number has helped to decrease the large epistemic uncertainty associated with the swirling device. The swirl is found to be the cause of asymmetric loads on the walls of the core barrel and also asymmetries are enhanced for the tracer concentration distribution at the core inlet.The k–ϵ CFD model developed with the commercial code STAR-CCM+ proves to be able to predict quantitatively well both, the mixing at the core inlet and the mechanical loading at the core barrel for most of the different flow configurations considered.