EFFICIENCY OF THE SMMi INSERTION FLOW CONDITIONER |
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| Julien Cancade, Bertrand Reeb |
- Abstract:
- Turbine meters and orifice plates are designed to operate in ideal conditions, downstream of straight pipe lengths and therefore turbine meters are calibrated in this configuration. The metering accuracy strongly depends on the flow conditions encountered at the meter inlet. Turbine meters are very sensitive to installation effects inducing flow perturbations like jet flow or swirling effects, generated by pressure regulators or pipe configuration in city gate stations. The error due to bad installation effects can reach more than 3%.
Consequently, in order to maintain a good level of accuracy, either the bad installation configuration has to be removed, or the meter has to be isolated from flow perturbations. However, the first solution is not suitable because other constraints like urbanization require a higher compactness of flow measurement systems. In addition it is not economically viable to modify the geometrical configuration of current delivery stations. So the second solution (which consists of making the meter less sensitive to bad configurations) is more suitable, and flow conditioners fulfill this goal. Flow conditioners (FCs) reduce flow perturbations like swirl or asymmetry in a much shorter pipe length than that usually necessary to a natural attenuation. Flow conditioners are more and more used on gas networks. As a proof, a certain number of FCs are quoted in international standards such as the ISO 5167 on differential pressure metering, acknowledging the efficiency of flow conditioners.
The International Organization of the Legal Metrology has a project of recommendations concerning flow measurement systems of combustible gas. This text defines three categories of users and a given level of permissible metering error for each category. The future national laws based upon these recommendations will make the requirements concerning the metering even more drastic, especially for category A meters which will be the biggest systems. It is more than probable that the use of flow conditioners will be necessary for existing delivery stations to match the new requirements. A certain number of flow conditioners are available on the market. Their efficiency but also their limits are well known. Gaz de France proposes a new version of its patented flow conditioner SMM10.
Different experimental studies using hot wire-velocimetry and LDA measurement were carried out to assess the efficiency of the conditioner SMM. These results were the subject of papers presented in another congress. In addition, validation tests have been carried out under real operating conditions, on delivery station configurations of the Gaz de France network. This poster described results obtained. - Download:
- IMEKO-TC9-2003-009.pdf
- DOI:
- -
- Event details
- IMEKO TC:
- TC9
- Event name:
- FLOMEKO 2003
- Title:
- 11th Conference on Flow Measurement
- Place:
- Groningen, NETHERLANDS
- Time:
- 12 May 2003 - 14 May 2003