FLOW MEASUREMENT

AIM:
To find the coefficient of discharge of venturimeter and the orifice plate meter.
To study the characteristics of flow across various devices, like a Venturimeter, a Rotameter
and an Orifice plate meter.
To calculate the volume flow rate of water using the pressure difference across a Venturimeter,
a Rotameter and an Orifice plate meter.

Theory:-



The head loss H12 is assumed to arise as a consequence of the vertices of the stream. Because the
flow is viscous shear stress exists at the wall and hence some of the pressure force and energy must
be spent to overcome it. The consequent rise in flow work appears as an increase in internal energy,
and also because the flow is viscous, the velocity distribution at any cross section is non uniform.
The kinetic energy per unit mass at any section is hence greater than V2/2g and Bernoullis equation
incorrectly assesses this term. Since a contraction of the stream boundaries in incompressible fluids
increases the flow uniformity and divergence correspondingly decreases it, H is typically negligible
between the ends of converging duct but is large when the flow diverges.

VENTURI METER:


ORIFICE METER:
H12 is by no means negligible between the ends of orifice meter. Hence normal measurement
through orifice meter should give an error.
By the same method followed above the discharge through an orifice meter can be calculated via
the following equation:

ROTAMETER:

Observation of the recording for the pressure drop across the Rotameter ends H I show that this
difference is large and independent of discharge. There is a term, which arises because of wall shear
stress, and is therefore velocity dependent, but since the Rotameter is of large bore this term is small.
Most of the observed pressure difference is required to maintain the float in equilibrium and since its
weight is constant this pressure difference is independent of discharge.
The cause of this pressure difference is the head loss associated with the high velocity of water
around the float periphery. Since this head loss is constant then the peripheral velocity is constant. To
maintain a constant velocity with varying discharge rate, the cross sectional area through which this
high velocity occurs must vary. This variation of cross sectional area will arises as the float moves up
and down the tapered Rotameter tube.
From above figure, if the float radius is and the local bore of the Rotameter tube is 2Rt then:



ORIFICE METER:
For the Orifice meter the measured head difference is about 0.83 times the measured head
difference. This is because of the obstruction such as an orifice pipe, there is a small increase in
pressure on the pipe wall due to part of the impact on the plate being conveyed to the pipe wall.

Sample Calculation
VENTURIMETER CALCULATIONS:
hA = 210mm , hB = 208mm , hC =209mm, Time = 127.32 sec
Substituting in equation (2) and equation (3),
The theoretical values of:
Volumetric Flow rate, Substituting in equation (2) and equation (3),
The theoretical values of:
Volumetric Flow rate:
QTheoretical = 4.302 * 10^-5 m^3/s
Mass Flow rate,
mtheoretical = 4.302 * 10 ^ -2kg/s
Actual Values are,
QActual = 3.92 * 10^ -5 m^3/s
mActual = 3.92 * 10^-2 kg/s
Coefficient of discharge, Cd = QActual/ QTheoretical = 3.92/4.302 = 0.91
Head Loss Calculations
Substituting in equation (6),
The Head loss is,
(delta)H = (210 209)/(0.167*(210-208)) = 2.99 inlet kinetic heads
ORIFICE METER CALCULATIONS:
hE= 208mm , hF=206mm , time = 127.32
Substituting in equation (4) and (5),
The theoretical values are,
QTheoretical = 6.29 * 10^-5 m^3/s
Mass Flow rate,
mtheoretical = 6.29 * 10 ^ -2kg/s
Actual Values are,
QActual = 3.92 * 10^ -5 m^3/s
mActual = 3.92 * 10^-2 kg/s
Coefficient of discharge, Cd = QActual/ QTheoretical = 3.92/6.29 = 0.62
Head Loss Calculations
Substituting in equation (7),
The Head loss is,
(delta)H = .83 * 16 * (208-206) / (.167 * (210-208)) = 79.52 inlet kinetic heads
ROTAMETER CALCULATIONS:
hH = 206mm , hI = 95
(delta)H = 206 95 = 111mm








RESULT:
Venturimeter :-
average from experiment= 0.878
average from graph=0.86
Average Head loss =1.858 inlet kinetic head
Orifice meter :-
average from experiment= 0.575
average from graph=0.58
Average Head loss =86.96 inlet kinetic head
Rotameter :-
Average Head loss = 103mm
INFERENCE:
The standard Cd value for Venturimeter is in the range 0.85 to 0.95 which is
matching with both the Cd values from experiment and graph.
The standard Cd value for Orifice meter is in the range 0.55 to 0.65 which is
matching with both the Cd values from experiment and graph.
From the results we can see that, value of Venturimeter is greater. Also
Venturimeter has very low head loss value compared to that of
Orificemeter. So this shows that Venturimeter is much better instrument
than Orificemeter.
Pressure difference across the rotameter was observed to be constant.
Graph between float rise (mm) and actual volumetric flow rate (lit. /min) is
almost linear. It shows that float rise adjusts itself according to the flow
rate to maintain constant pressure difference across Rotameter. This is the
principle on which Rotameter works.