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Balanced Flow Meters without Moving PartsBalanced flow meters are recent additions to an established class of simple, rugged flow meters that contain no moving parts in contact with flow and are based on measurement of pressure drops across objects placed in flow paths. These flow meters are highly accurate, minimally intrusive, easily manufacturable, and reliable. A balanced flow meter can be easily mounted in a flow path by bolting it between conventional pipe flanges. A balanced flow meter can be used to measure the flow of any of a variety of liquids or gases, provided that it has been properly calibrated. Relative to the standard orifice-plate flow meter, the balanced flow meter introduces less turbulence and two times less permanent pressure loss and is therefore capable of offering 10 times greater accuracy and repeatability with less dissipation of energy. A secondary benefit of the reduction of turbulence is the reduction of vibration and up to 15 times less acoustic noise generation. Both the balanced flow meter and the standard orifice-plate flow meter are basically disks that contain holes and are instrumented with pressure transducers on their upstream and downstream faces. The most obvious difference between them is that the standard orifice plate contains a single, central hole while the balanced flow meter contains multiple holes. The term 'balanced' signifies that in designing the meter, the sizes and locations of the holes are determined in an optimization procedure that involves balancing of numerous factors, including volumetric flow, mass flow, dynamic pressure, kinetic energy, all in an effort to minimize such undesired effects as turbulence, pressure loss, dissipation of kinetic energy, and non-repeatability and nonlinearity of response over the anticipated range of flow conditions. Due to proper balancing of these factors, recent testing demonstrated that the balanced flow-meter performance was similar to a Venturi tube in both accuracy and pressure recovery, but featured reduced cost and pipe-length requirements.
Document ID
20090020619
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other - NASA Tech Brief
External Source(s)
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/2559
Authors
Kelley, Anthony R. (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL, United States)
VanBuskirk, Paul (Quality Monitoring and Control United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2008
Publication Information
Publication: NASA Tech Briefs, January 2008
Subject Category
Fluid Mechanics And Thermodynamics
Report/Patent Number
MFS-31952-1
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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IDRelationTitle20090020593Collected WorksNASA Tech Briefs, January 2008
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