Coriolis Flow Meter
If you are not in the industry that requires you to use a Coriolis flow meter, you will, in all likelihood, not even have heard of it. More familiar perhaps are the use of the terms “ultrasonic” and “Doppler.”
However, the applications for Coriolis flowmeter technology is continuously expanding due to the higher pressure to provide the need for greater accuracy fueled by the cost-effectiveness nature of these types of instruments, more and more people will become aware of and be required to utilize flow meters.
Flowmeters are used to quantify the flow rates of gas or liquid. Using volumetric flow rate or the mass flow rate, flow meters are able to measure the substances mentioned above. Specific measures of quantifications of the Volumetric Flow Rate differ from the Mass Flow Rate.
Flow meters serve many purposes. A peak flow meter can measure lung capacities that is useful for asthmatic patients to determine upcoming asthma attacks. Aside from that, flow meters can be found in industries such as water resource management, food processing, semi conductor companies, etc.
Flowmeters are classified according to operational purpose. In this case, essentially utilizing the movement and rotation of the earth, the Coriolis Flowmeter determines the amount of fluid which passes through tubes. Understanding changes in characteristics in wave patterns through these vibrating tubes will allow further correlation.
This type of technological advances can also be found in the Ultrasonic and Doppler flow meters .
The Ultrasonic flowmeter utilizes ultrasonic sound wave transmitters that are placed on ends of pipes where the measurement is recorded. The select transmitter then sends pulses with sound.
Each transmitters act as recipients of waves or pulses that is received by another transmitter. A pulse is sent along the flow direction of that of the substance it is measuring and another pulse follows the direction away of flow of that same substance. Results having various constants compared to those with the metal pipes allow derivation of flow rate from the length of time the sound took reaches another receiver.
The Doppler flowmeter is derived from the term “Doppler shift” and uses the same technology in that changes in amplitude and frequency of sound waves upon bouncing off particulates in the substance which is studied or tested will determine the rate of flow.
A traditional flowmeter is exemplified by a variable area. Calibrated tubes use floats which displaces when a substances passes through. Indication in the calibration would simply bear the result. Basic examples of this principle are measurements for lung capacities.
A couple of the manufacturers of the Coriolis mass flow meter are: Krohne and GE Rheonik.
If you would like to learn more about the Coriolis flow meter, there are several excellent resource books: Mass Flow Meter by Gaspard Gustave, Basic Process Measurements by Cecil Smith, Multiphase Flow Metering by Gioia Falcone.