A new type of velocity averaging tube vortex flow sensor and measurement model of mass flow rate

• Published in: Energy (Oxford) 2023-11, Vol.283, p.129155, Article 129155
• Main Authors: Fang, Lide, Liu, Yueyuan, Zheng, Meng, Liu, Xu, Lan, Kang, Wang, Fan, Yan, Xiaoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Double differential pressure; Flow sensor; Mass flow rate; Measurement model; Velocity averaging tube vortex (VATV)
• ISSN: 0360-5442
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.129155

Accurate mass flow rate measurement of fluid is one of the key technologies to ensure product quality and utilization of energy resources. However, the accuracy of traditional combined measuring devices is limited. In this paper, a new type of velocity averaging tube vortex flow sensor (VATV) is designed, and the mass flow rate measurement model is proposed and analyzed to achieve the high precision measurement of mass flow rate. The size, shape and structure of the VATV are designed in this study and there are no moving parts inside the integrated VATV. The method of double differential pressure is proposed to achieve the measurement of the average differential pressure signal and differential pressure fluctuation signal. Then, the method of Empirical Wavelet Transform (EWT) is used to extract the vortex shedding frequency from the differential pressure fluctuation signal. It indicated that the proposed VATV achieves an accuracy of ±0.50%, and the repeatability is also lower than 0.07%. A remarkable improvement of accuracy is achieved compared to the original combined measurement devices. The proposed sensor shows good prospect for the detection of gas-liquid two-phase flow such as wet stream due to the feature of strong anti-interference, high stability and reliability. •A new type of integrated velocity averaging tube vortex flow sensor (VATV) is designed and analyzed.•The method of double differential pressure is proposed to realize the measurement of two differential pressure signals.•The mass flow rate measurement model of the VATV is proposed in the manuscript.•The proposed VATV in this paper achieves an accuracy of ±0.50% for single-phase water measurement, which has strong anti-interference and reliability.•The proposed VATV in this paper shows good prospect in the fields of industrial production and energy utilization.