Investigation on a flow transducer using modified force sensing technique

Abstract

The principle of centrifugal force produced by flowing fluid through the semicircular section of a pipe line is not sufficient to explain the characteristic of the centrifugal force type flow transducer developed from this principle. In this study, a modified form of this flow transducer is developed using a modified force sensing technique. This modified force principle explains the characteristic of the flow transducer to a very good extent. The modified force produced in the modified transducer system is composed of four components namely, centrifugal force, momentum force, damping force and restoring force. These forces produce the identical downward and upward movements of the lever ends of a common balance which is initially made horizontal at zero flow by using similar sensing U-tube and dummy U-tube. These movements are sensed by two identical inductive sensors. The static characteristic equation of the prototype unit of the transducer using the modified force sensing technique is derived mathematically in the study. The equation coefficients are calculated from the design parameters and are found to be matched with the same obtained from the average characteristic of repeated experiments performed under the same laboratory environment. Thus the proposed modified model appears to be established.