Advantages of Turbine and Ultrasonic Flowmeters

Advantages of Turbine and Ultrasonic Flowmeters Custody transfer is one of the most vital applications for flow measurement. A number of flow measurement technologies are utilized for custody transfer applications. The types of custody transfer metering systems include differential pressure positive displacement flow meters, DP flow meters, turbine flow meters, Coriolis flow meters, and ultrasonic flow meters. Of all of these applications, the turbine and ultrasonic flow meters are most widely used in the industry.

Here is some information about these two flowmeters and the advantage they have over the types of flowmeters: http://www.ogsi.ae

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Turbine Flowmeters

The turbine flow meter was invented by Reinhard Woltman, a German engineer in 1790.

Turbine flow meters are made up of a rotor with attached propeller-like blades that spin when water or some other fluid is passed over it. The spins of the rotor are proportional to the flow rate. There are various types of turbine meters, but a majority of them are utilized for gas flow measurements and are called as axial meters.

The turbine flowmeter is beneficial for measuring a clean, steady, high-speed flow of fluids that have low-viscosity. The turbine flow meter is more cost-effective than ultrasonic flow meters, particularly in the lines with larger sizes, and it also has a price advantage when compared to the cost of DP flow meters, specifically in situations where a single turbine meter can actually replace several DP meters.

The only disadvantage with turbine flow meters is that they contain moving parts which are susceptible to wear. To prevent such wear and inaccuracy, more durable materials are used in building turbine flow meters like tungsten carbide bearings, titanium rotor blades to avoid corrosion, etc.

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Ultrasonic Flowmeters

Ultrasonic flow meters were first launched into the industrial markets in 1963 in Japan.

Custody transfer measurements have been in use for a very long time now, and over the past ten years, ultrasonic meters have become the preferred choice of flowmeters for custody transfer in the oil and gas industry.

Ultrasonic meters measure the volumetric flow rate. They usually use the transit-time method, in which the sounds waves transmitted in the same direction as that of the fluid flow travel faster than the ones moving upstream. The transit time difference is directly proportional to the velocity of the fluid. Ultrasonic flowmeters have a negligible drop in pressure and have a high turndown capability. They can handle a broad range of applications such as in crude oil production, transportation, and processing.

The use of ultrasonic flowmeters has continued to grow for custody transfer. Unlike Positive Displacement and turbine meters, the ultrasonic flow meters do not contain any moving parts.

Pressure drop is significantly reduced with an ultrasonic meter in comparison to the positive displacement, turbine, and DP meters. Moreover, Multi-beam Ultrasonic flowmeters, which contain multiple transducers, have an ultra-fast scanning rate. And this results in a significant amount of primary data for averaging and flowrate calculation, increasing the overall accuracy of the system.

Installation of ultrasonic meters is comparatively more straightforward, and maintenance requirements are also low. http://www.ogsi.ae

Oil and Gas System International