Wednesday 21st October 2020

FLOW METER FOCUS

Common Q&A’s from flow meter users

Safety, Automation, Maintenance & Stacked DP

In this issue:
• Safety
• Automatic Function
• Zero Gas Releases
• Hydrogen Design
• Why not Stacked DP?
In this fourth article, GM Flow will address safety,
as well as customer questions about how Adjusta
-Cone® automatically adjusts its range as the
flow rate changes. While doing this, of course it
doesn’t release any gas. The requirement for
field maintenance and why not simply use
stacked DP as an alternative solution.

Safety

We have already talked about safety in the

first edition of this series of issues but we’re
going back to it again, because its so
important to get it right. Personnel are
human and humans take chances:
• Using a power tool without safety glasses
• Climbing a ladder which isn't tied off
• Texting while driving.
I doubt any of us could say they have never
carried out one of these hazardous tasks
sometime in their life.
When it comes to changing an orifice plate,
we now take for granted, that gas will be
released, every single time, regardless of
where the fitting is well maintained and that
the operators stick exactly to the defined
procedure.
Two people are put at risk and, if the orifice
fitting is leaking, it will cause even more risk
for the 20-30 minute it takes to change the
plate. This investigation report is one of
many hundreds or perhaps thousands of
reported and unreported incidents involving
orifice plate changes.
Engineering design is the only way to counteract the human element and the plant failure
element. Adjusta-Cone takes care of this for you.
Automatic Function

Looking inside Adjusta-Cone, we deliberately made it not very exciting to watch the sleeve
moving, and on the outside there’s not too much action either. GM Flow utilises a gear
assembly and electric actuator to switch from low to high and from high to low range. An
indicator on the actuator displays the relative position of the sleeve inside the body as it
moves. A handwheel can be used to over-ride the actuator to manually switch in the event of
a power failure.
The Flow Computer attached to Adjusta-
Cone also utilises battery backup in the
event of power failure. The FC monitors the
differential pressure and if it falls outside
preset Differential Pressure limits, an
algorithm triggers the sleeve movement
routine via the electric actuator.
Limit switches in the actuator cause the
calculation to be disabled during movement
of the sleeve to eliminate measurement
errors. The flow computer display changes
from flow monitoring mode, to sleeve travel
mode, indicating that travel is taking place.
After a period of approximately 90 seconds,
the sleeve has moved through the complete
travel distance and the flow compute again
switches into flow monitoring mode. As soon
as this happens, the FC also changes the
flow calculation to match the new beta ratio
and coefficient of discharge v’s Reynolds no.
(calibration) table mentioned in issue 2.
Flow monitoring begins again immediately,
using multiple parameter samples each
second and usually from 5 second to 15
minute flow averaging/calculation periods. All
data is logged for each flow period.

Gas constituents can be entered

manually via a Wi-Fi or an RS485
link. Gas density is calculated
using the latest ISO/AGA and
GERG calculations. A live gas
chromatograph feed can be routed
directly to the FC and additional
DP or SP transmitters can be
attached as slaves to the FC
acting as master. In well test
applications, the AGA “Gross”
method can be utilised to enter
only the SG, CO2 & N2
components.
Zero Gas Releases

In the last edition, we discussed the gearbox pressure gauge. Even in

the unlikely event that the sliding sleeve seals fail, the gearbox
maintains full line pressure and the gauge shows any build up of
pressure within the gearbox cavity.

With automatic functionality and this safety feature, you can be sure
that your operators cannot be exposed to hazardous gas during the
range changing process, something which is especially important in
H2S environments.

Hydrogen Design

Not content with having a fully redundant and extensively tested sealing system for natural
gas measurement, GM Flow are taking seal integrity to a new level with a brand new,
funded project, dedicated to hydrogen and CO2 flow measurement.
Being the smallest atom, hydrogen can
escape where other gases are fully
contained, so we are beginning a
project to study alternative seal
materials and types along with their
mating surfaces, to ensure the tightest
and longest lasting seal for this type of
service. The learnings that we achieve will of course be applied to existing natural gas
applications to continuously improve our products and services. Additionally a 700 bar,
liquid hydrogen meter is in our development plans for the coming few months.

The funding was awarded as part of UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) ISCF
Prospering from the Energy Revolution challenge, which aims to unlock the potential of
intelligent local energy systems by funding business and researchers to work together with
local organisations to show how new systems can deliver cleaner, cheaper, investable
energy systems while creating high value jobs across the UK.

GM Flow are extremely grateful to UKRI for this funding which will allow us to quickly pivot
into the early stage hydrogen industry.
Why Not Simply Use Stacked Differential Pressure Transmitters?

At the 38th North Sea Measurement Workshop, a new question was asked:
Why not simply use stacked DP transmitters, to gain a higher turndown ratio?

The answer is relatively straightforward and it’s really all related to the turndown ratio.
ISO 5167 part II does not specify a DP range, rather a Re range, as the minimum flow
for an orifice meter. It is relatively impractical to calculate the Re in the field, so
generally the accepted1 turndown ratio is between 3.6 and 4:1
As an example, let’s use a 4” 0.55 beta plate mounted in a Sch 80 orifice fitting,
flowing 0.6 SG gas at 1000 mBar with a 1000 mBar transmitter.

The maximum flow rate is calculated as 20,704 Sm3/Hr. With the generally accepted
4:1 turndown and a single 1000 mBar transmitter, the flow rate and DP will be 5176
Sm3/Hr @ 61.85 mBar. If we now assume that we install a second, 50 mBar
transmitter and that for comparison purposes, that we’ll use 50 mBar as the
switchover point, this makes a lower limit of 4564 m3/Hr for the upper transmitter.
If we could automatically and quickly switch over the transmitters, at exactly 50 mBar
and the low range transmitter is calibrated up to 50 mBar, the same plate will have a
maximum low flow rate of 4654 m3/Hr with this transmitter. Now if we drop the rate at
the same ratio as above, the normal minimum flow rate would be 1/4 of this, or 1163.5
Sm3/Hr. The DP corresponding to this flow rate is 3.1 mBar which would be almost
impossible to measure under field conditions. The minimum DP that could accurately
be measured is roughly 5 mBar. This translates into a minimum flow rate of 1472 m3/
hr. Thus, even with stacked DP, an orifice plate turndown ratio would be from 20,704
to 1472 m3/Hr that is a 14.1:1 turndown ratio. The image below demonstrates this in
action, with three transmitters achieving roughly 10:1 at +/- 0.5%.

1) https://www.controlglobal.com/articles/2017/orifice-flowmeter-rangeability/
Using a standard 4” 0.55 Beta cone meter, as a direct comparison, we can calculate that
the maximum rate at 1000 mBar is 28775 m3/Hr. It is generally accepted that a standard
cone has a turndown ratio of 10:1, which would produce 10 mBar in a 100:1 turndown
transmitter. We could switch over to a 50 mBar transmitter and utilise a 5 to 50 mBar
range, but this would only drop the lower end to 2053 Sm3/Hr at the same 5 mBar limit as
above. Thus even with stacked DP with a standard cone would produce a turn down ratio
of 28775 to 2053 m3/Hr, which is 14.0:1

Adjusta-Cone has two separate physical flow ranges within a single meter body and the
closest direct comparison in this example, is a 3” 0.75 and 0.45 beta device.

The upper range has a turndown ratio from 32,998 Sm3/Hr at 1000 mBar down to 365
Sm3/Hr at 10 mBar. However the meter is configured to switch over automatically, if the
DP drops below a fixed value, so the usable 0.75 beta lower limit is 5940 Sm3/Hr at 30
mBar. The 0.45 beta range takes over at this point and will produce 940 mBar at 5940
Sm3/Hr. This range will go down as far as 602 Sm3/hr at 10 mBar, the lower calibrated
limit of the DP transmitter. This means that a 3” Adjusta-Cone will provide an overall flow
range of 32998 to 602 Sm3/hr, which is a turndown ratio of 54.8, easily beating a standard
cone and orifice plate - even using stacked DP.

In practical terms, stacked DP transmitters would require to be isolated from each

other so the lower range doesn't get over-ranged or damaged. Manual or electric actuated
isolation vales would have to be installed and controlled by a flow computer or DCS
system, so they switched at the correct point. This will add a time delay (w/ manual change
over), cost and complexity to such a system and it may well prove impossible to carry out.
One customer told us they had tried unsuccessfully, for two years to do something very
similar (two parallel cones).
Nevertheless the advantages of stacked DP, are far outperformed by Adjusta-Cone, so
stacking DP transmitters would produce no appreciable benefit to the end user.