Fluid Motion in Ultrasonic Flowmeter Cavities

The ultrasonic flow meter is a newcomer among flow meters for measuring large quantities of natural gas. It has notable advantages compared to traditional meters. The ultrasonic flow meter is much more compact and has a wider dynamic range for flow measurements than the orifice plate meter. When manufactured, the ultrasonic sensors are often set back from the pipe wall in a cavity. When the fluid flows past the cavities, a secondary flow of vortices with characteristic size equal to the cavity width is established inside the cavities. The aim of this study has been to investigate the influence of this secondary flow on the accuracy of the ultrasonic flow meter. Both measurements and numerical simulations of the cavity flow have been conducted. It has been found from the present work, that the influence of the flow in the cavities on the measurements increases nonlinearly with the pipe flow rate.