Experimental investigation of black powder deposition effects on the accuracy of natural gas turbine flow meters

The presence of black powder particles in pipelines, particularly under critical conditions of high gas consumption and pressure drop, increases the particle concentration in the flow. These particles not only collide with the blades of turbine flow meters and cause damage but also deposit on the blades and increase their mass. In this study, the effect of black powder deposition on the measurement accuracy of natural gas turbine flow meters was experimentally investigated. For this purpose, the blades of a turbine flow meter were uniformly weighted in several steps, and the meter accuracy was evaluated in a laboratory test facility. The results showed that even a very small increase in blade mass leads to a noticeable increase in flow measurement error. In other words, as the blade mass increases, the measured flow rate tends to overestimate the actual flow. For example, with a ۴.۳۷% increase in blade mass, the measurement error increased up to ۵.۱۷% at minimum flow rate and ۲.۱۹% at maximum flow rate. Moreover, the error was found to be more significant at lower flow rates; for instance, a ۹.۶۸% increase in blade mass resulted in a measurement error of up to ۱۹.۲% at the minimum flow rate. Finally, an empirical correlation was proposed to estimate the percentage error in flow measurement as a function of blade mass increase across different flow rates, and the predictions were compared with the experimental data.

کلیدواژه ها:

black powder ، natural gas ، deposition ، turbine flow meter