Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers

The relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and discharge coefficients (C) was investigated through differential pressure flow meters. The focus of the study was directed toward very small Reynolds numbers commonly associated with pipeline transportation of viscous fluids. There is currently a...

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Main Author: Hollingshead, Colter L.
Format: Others
Published: DigitalCommons@USU 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/869
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1865&context=etd
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spelling ndltd-UTAHS-oai-digitalcommons.usu.edu-etd-18652019-10-13T05:46:24Z Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers Hollingshead, Colter L. The relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and discharge coefficients (C) was investigated through differential pressure flow meters. The focus of the study was directed toward very small Reynolds numbers commonly associated with pipeline transportation of viscous fluids. There is currently a relatively small amount of research that has been performed in this area for the Venturi, standard orifice plate, V-cone, and wedge flow meters. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT© was used to perform the research, while GAMBIT© was used as the preprocessing tool for the flow meter models created. Heavy oil and water were used separately as the two flowing fluids to obtain a wide range of Reynolds numbers with high precision. Multiple models were used with varying characteristics, such as pipe size and meter geometry, to obtain a better understanding of the C vs. Re relationship. All of the simulated numerical models were compared to physical data to determine the accuracy of the models. The study indicates that the various discharge coefficients decrease rapidly as the Reynolds number approaches 1 for each of the flow meters; however, the Reynolds number range in which the discharge coefficients were constant varied with meter design. The standard orifice plate does not follow the general trend in the discharge coefficient curve that the other flow meters do; instead as the Re decreases, the C value increases to a maximum before sharply dropping off. Several graphs demonstrating the varying relationships and outcomes are presented. The primary focus of this research was to obtain further understanding of discharge coefficient performance versus Reynolds number for differential producing flow meters at very small Reynolds numbers. 2011-05-01T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/869 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1865&context=etd Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact Andrew Wesolek (andrew.wesolek@usu.edu). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations DigitalCommons@USU coefficient performance Venturi standard concentric orifice plate V-cone wedge flow meters small Reynolds numbers Petroleum Engineering Civil Engineering
collection NDLTD
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic coefficient performance
Venturi
standard concentric orifice plate
V-cone
wedge flow meters
small Reynolds numbers
Petroleum Engineering
Civil Engineering
spellingShingle coefficient performance
Venturi
standard concentric orifice plate
V-cone
wedge flow meters
small Reynolds numbers
Petroleum Engineering
Civil Engineering
Hollingshead, Colter L.
Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
description The relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and discharge coefficients (C) was investigated through differential pressure flow meters. The focus of the study was directed toward very small Reynolds numbers commonly associated with pipeline transportation of viscous fluids. There is currently a relatively small amount of research that has been performed in this area for the Venturi, standard orifice plate, V-cone, and wedge flow meters. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program FLUENT© was used to perform the research, while GAMBIT© was used as the preprocessing tool for the flow meter models created. Heavy oil and water were used separately as the two flowing fluids to obtain a wide range of Reynolds numbers with high precision. Multiple models were used with varying characteristics, such as pipe size and meter geometry, to obtain a better understanding of the C vs. Re relationship. All of the simulated numerical models were compared to physical data to determine the accuracy of the models. The study indicates that the various discharge coefficients decrease rapidly as the Reynolds number approaches 1 for each of the flow meters; however, the Reynolds number range in which the discharge coefficients were constant varied with meter design. The standard orifice plate does not follow the general trend in the discharge coefficient curve that the other flow meters do; instead as the Re decreases, the C value increases to a maximum before sharply dropping off. Several graphs demonstrating the varying relationships and outcomes are presented. The primary focus of this research was to obtain further understanding of discharge coefficient performance versus Reynolds number for differential producing flow meters at very small Reynolds numbers.
author Hollingshead, Colter L.
author_facet Hollingshead, Colter L.
author_sort Hollingshead, Colter L.
title Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
title_short Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
title_full Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
title_fullStr Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
title_full_unstemmed Discharge Coefficient Performance of Venturi, Standard Concentric Orifice Plate, V-Cone, and Wedge Flow Meters at Small Reynolds Numbers
title_sort discharge coefficient performance of venturi, standard concentric orifice plate, v-cone, and wedge flow meters at small reynolds numbers
publisher DigitalCommons@USU
publishDate 2011
url https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/869
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1865&context=etd
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