Measurement of

Flow – Lec-
1_Introduction

(Unit-III_Part-B)
Contents
● Introduction
● Fundamentals
● Objectives of Lesson
● Classification of Flow measuring instruments

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Introduction
Accurate measurement of flow rate of liquids, gases and
granular solids are essential requirements for maintaining
the quality of industrial processes.

In fact, most of the industrial control loops control the

flow rates of incoming liquids or gases in order to
achieve the control objective
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Fundamentals
●Flow Rate: Volume of Fluid
Per unit time flowing past a
Point through the area A

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Flow Characteristics
Reynolds Number Re = (ρVD)/µ
● Laminar: When fluids move
through uniform conduits at
very low velocities, the
motions of individual particles
are generally along lines
paralleling the conduit walls..
●Turbulent: . As the flow rate is
increased, a point is reached where the
particle motion becomes random,
showing unsteady, random vortices
throughout the pipe. This type of flow
pattern is called Turbulent flow
●The approximate velocity at which this
change occurs is called the critical
velocity.
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Velocity Distribution for Laminar &
Turbulent Flows…
● Laminar: The particle velocity is
greatest at the center and zero al
the wall, with the velocity
distribution as shown in Fig. (a).
● Turbulent: unsteady, random
vortices throughout the pipe. In
this case, we think of the time-
average velocity distribution,
which has the appearance shown
in Fig. (b)

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Ways of measuring flow rate
● Direct way to measure flow rate is to capture and record
the volume or mass that flows during a fixed time interval
(a primary measurement of flow rate).
● often, some other quantity, such as a pressure difference or
mechanical response, is used to infer the flow rate (a
secondary measurement).

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Lesson Objectives
● Name different types of flow meters
● Distinguish the constructional differences between different
flow meters (Rate meters and Quantity meters)
● Understand the basic principle of operation of different flow
meters
● Identify a suitable flow measuring instrument for a particular
application

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Classification`
1. Primary or quantity methods:
(a) Weight tanks and so on
(b) Volume tanks-graduated cylinders, bell provers etc.
2. Flow meters:
(a) Obstruction meters (responding to pressure differentials)
i. Constant area, variable head meters: Ex: Venturi meters, Flow
nozzles and Orifices
ii. Constant head, Variable-area meters: Ex: Rotameter

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Classification Continued…
(b) Volume flow meters (responding to volumetric flow rates)
i. Turbine and propeller meters ii. Electromagnetic flow meters (liquids
only) iii. Vortex-shedding meters iv. Ultrasonic flow meters v.
Positive-displacement meters
(c) Mass flow meters (responding to mass flow rates)
i. Coriolis meters ii. Critical How venturi meters iii. Thermal mass flow
anemometers

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Classification Continued…
3. Velocity probes:
(a) Pressure probes: i. Total pressure and Pilot-static tubes
ii. Direction-sensing probes
(b) Hot-wire and hot-film anemometers
(c) Doppler-shift methods: i. Laser-Doppler anemometer
ii. Ultrasonic-Doppler anemometer (liquids only)
(d) Particle-image velocimetry

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Classification Continued…
4. Flow-visualization techniques
(a) Smoke trails and smoke wires (gases)
(b) Dye injection, chemical precipitates, particle tracers (liquids)
(c) Hydrogen bubble technique (liquids)
(d) Laser-induced fluorescence
(e) Refractive-index change: Interferometry, schlieen, shadowgraph

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