Monitoring Water Usage with Loop Powered Flow Transmitter

Application
Measuring flow of domestic water use in each of the buildings located on a university campus in Connecticut.

Background
The university hired an outside contractor to replace existing paddlewheel flowmeters at various locations across the campus. The paddlewheel flowmeters were unreliable and required frequent maintenance and replacement.

Advantages
The UTX878 appealed to the customer as an economical non-intrusive, maintenance-free alternative to the paddlewheel flowmeters. Since the UTX878 does not come into contact with the process, there is no danger of clogging and does not require shutting down the process.

The UTX878 was also easily powered using the existing 24 VDC supply. Approximately 50 units were purchased and installed.

Installation
Most of the UTX878 installation locations were on Type L copper pipe ranging from 2 to 6 in. (50 mm to 150 mm) outside diameters. The transducers and fixture were typically installed after the system back-flow preventer. The UTX878 meter electronics was powered by 24 VDC from the existing data acquisition panel located in each building.

Equipment
Measurements were taken with the UTX878 Loop Powered Flow Transmitter with UTX clamping fixture with #407 2 MHz transducers.



Specifications
Pipe OD: 2 to 6 in. (50 mm to 150 mm)
Pipe Wall: 0.070 to .140 in. (1.8 to 3.5 mm)
Pipe Material: Type L Copper
Pressure: 0 to 10 psig (0 to 1.07 bar)
Temperature: 50oF (10oC)

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Ultrasonic Flowmeter for Steam

Application
A Dutch paper factory in Holland produces approximately 160,000 tons of paper per year. The main products are copy paper, envelopes and packing paper. Low pressure steam is used to heat up the paper machines and glue. The condensate is then pumped to the power plant.

Problem
The manufacturer began looking for a method to measure low-pressure steam in an isolated pipe with a 700 mm (28 in) diameter. The main objective was a future fiscal transfer measurement of energy in megajoules supplied by the power plant to the factory and to be able to produce a complete energy balance.

Requirements
- High turndown ratio of 150:l.
- No pressure loss.
- High repeatability.
- High accuracy with regards to internal transfer.
- Low maintenance costs.
- Trouble-free operation and thus high reliability.

Equipment
The GE gas flowmeter with standard steam transducers are used in a diagonal 45 installation. A flow computer converts the 4 mA to 20 mA output signals from the meter, along with pressure and temperature inputs, into a mass flow rate (tones/hour).



Specifications

Minimum/Maximum Flow
0 to 50,000 m3/hr

Nominal Flow
35,000 m3/hr

Pressure (gage)
2.45 bar

Temperature
165°C

Accuracy
± 1% of full scale

Reproducibility
≤ 0.5%

Click here to see similar Steam Flow Measurement applications

Steam Flow Measurement

Application
The application is the measurement of low-pressure steam flows. Such flows are measured and controlled for purposes such as controlling the temperature of vessels, the speed of steam turbines, and the heating of process fluids.



Background
Traditionally, orifice plates have measured steam flows. With that technique, users were faced with pressure drops, which cause energy loss and produce water droplets in low- pressure, saturated steam. These water droplets cause erosion of the internal metal surfaces such as valve seats, elbows, turbine blades, and even the orifice plate used to measure the flow. An additional problem is the limited range of orifice plates, typically a maximum of 10 to 1. More recently, other types, including shedding-vortex meters have been tried.

Problem
A GE customer had installed insertion, shedding-vortex meters in the 60 psig and 235 psig steam-supply system for a new operating unit. These meters were selected because of low-pressure drop. The installed meters, however, could not handle the high velocities encountered and performed poorly in measuring very low flows.

Advantages
The GE Steam Flowmeter system gives excellent measurements from zero flow through 70 fps. There is no pressure drop to cause droplet formation and energy loss. The insertion mechanisms allow transducer replacement and removal without disrupting plant operations.

Equipment
The customer was familiar with GE ultrasonic flowmeters in stack flows and asked if they could measure steam flow. Temperature and pressure inputs were fed into the steam flowmeter electronics so that the meter could calculate mass flow of the system. High-temperature, high-pressure transducers were used to withstand a large range of steam process conditions.

Installation
The installation includes three meters in a diagonal 45° configuration. Steam velocities range from 0 to 70 fps. Line sizes include one 10 in, two 12 in, and one 18 in line.