Natural gas is a clean energy. The proportion in the energy structure is increasing year by year. The coverage of natural gas is also becoming more and more extensive. Therefore, natural gas flow measurement becomes an important link.
The flow measurement of natural gas is mainly used in trade settlement at present. Natural gas trade measurement is based on volume or energy transfer measurement under the quality indicators required by law. At present, volume measurement is basically the main method.
Natural Gas Flow Meters Types
At present, the flowmeter products used for natural gas flow measurement roughly include:
- Gas waist wheel flowmeter,
- gas turbine flowmeter,
- precession vortex flowmeter,
- vortex flowmeter,
- Ultrasonic flow meter;
- Orifice flowmeter, etc.
The best way to measure natural gas is to use a vortex flowmeter. Vortex flowmeters can be used in many places, including applications in natural gas.
Can the vortex flowmeter measure natural gas?
Many customers will ask whether the vortex flowmeter can measure natural gas. The vortex flowmeter can measure natural gas.
Take the DN200 caliber of the vortex flowmeter as an example. To measure natural gas, you need to know the measurement medium, working temperature and pressure to select the model. Of course, the working conditions of the natural gas site are also very important.
The flowmeter range of DN200 caliber is 0-5000m3/h. With such a large flow range, the settlement is calculated per cubic meter, and there is no problem in measuring natural gas.
Of course, other flowmeters can be used to measure natural gas. It’s just that some flowmeters are relatively expensive due to the complicated processing technology. Therefore, in some unimportant occasions, customers often do not want to use it in pursuit of cost performance.
In most of the cases mentioned above, the vortex flowmeter can completely measure natural gas, and the price is not high. It is the first choice for measuring natural gas.
Featured Vortex Flow Meters
The vortex flowmeter is a fluid oscillating flowmeter based on the Karman vortex principle. That is, placing a non-streamlined, symmetrically shaped object in a flowing fluid. Vortex flow sensors are called vortex generators. Two columns of regular vortices, that is, Karman vortex street, will be produced on both sides of its downstream. Its vortex frequency is proportional to the incoming flow velocity: F=Stu/d
In the formula
F—Vortex Street Frequency
d—the width of the vortex generating body
u—incoming flow speed
St—Strouhal number
The value of St is related to the width d of the vortex generating body and the Reynolds number Re.
When the Reynolds number Re<2×104, St is a variable. When Re is in the range of 2×104～7×106, the St value basically remains unchanged. This range is the basic measurement range of the flowmeter.
The Reynolds number Re is a dimensionless number that characterizes the flow characteristics of a viscous fluid, and its physical meaning is the ratio of the inertial force to the viscous force of fluid flow.
The above formula shows that when d and St are fixed values, the frequency F of the vortex is proportional to the average flow velocity u of the fluid. The flow rate of the fluid can be obtained by measuring the frequency of the vortex. Using this characteristic, a vortex flowmeter is made.
- The vortex flowmeter has built-in pressure, temperature and flow sensors. High safety performance. Compact structure.
- The vortex flowmeter displays temperature, pressure, instantaneous flow and cumulative flow locally.
- The vortex flowmeter adopts a new signal processing amplifier and unique filtering technology. Interference signals caused by pressure fluctuations and pipeline vibrations are effectively eliminated. The anti-interference ability of the flowmeter is greatly improved, and the small flow has excellent stability.
- The vortex flowmeter flowmeter has the functions of time display and real-time data storage. No matter what the situation is, it can guarantee that the internal data will not be lost and can be stored permanently.
- The power consumption of the whole machine is extremely low, and it can run for a long time with internal battery power supply. It is an ideal display instrument without external power supply.
- The head of the vortex flowmeter can be rotated freely by 180 degrees, which is convenient for installation.
Causes of unstable natural gas measured by vortex flowmeter
1) The vortex flowmeter is not suitable for installation in places with strong vibration. This is well known to the majority of users. However, in the occasion where the magnetic field changes frequently, the vortex flow sensor will measure a signal output higher than the normal value.
Practice has proved that in the field of no gas flow, when the vortex flow sensor is in the changing magnetic field, the moment the magnetic field changes. The vortex flow sensor will sense an error signal and output it. When the change is over and the flowmeter is in a stable magnetic field, the flowmeter will output a normal signal.
2) Natural gas has high temperature and high humidity when it leaves the factory, so there will be moisture in the process of gas transportation. The gas flow drives the water to fluctuate back and forth, thus forming a pulsating flow. When the vortex flowmeter is in this fluid state, the output data fluctuates, which cannot reflect the production status at all.
3) The crimping of the vortex flowmeter is not true during the wiring process. As a result, the signal is intermittent during transmission.
4) The ground wire of the vortex flowmeter does not match.
More Featured Flow Measurement
Sino-Inst, as a manufacturer of vortex flowmeters. The vortex flowmeter has the advantages of high measurement accuracy, wide range, low power consumption, convenient installation, simple operation, and small pressure loss. It can measure working condition volume flow or standard volume flow. Integrated intelligent temperature and pressure compensation. According to user needs, it can be equipped with pulse or 4 ~ 20mADC current output function.
The vortex flowmeter is an ideal natural gas meter. The vortex flowmeter produced by our company is widely used in petroleum, chemical industry, electric power, metallurgy, urban gas supply and other industries to measure the flow of various gases. It is the preferred product for oil field and natural gas transmission and distribution metering and trade metering.