- Chol-Hwan O, Wi-Song Myong & Kum-Song Ri
- DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17418188
- GAS Journal of Engineering and Technology (GASJET)
The rotameter has a
relatively low measurement accuracy compared to other flowmeters due to the
nonlinearity between the flow rate and the floater position, viscosity
difference between the standard and the measuring medium, and the oscillation
characteristics of the floater. To improve the measurement accuracy, the taper
can be reduced to decrease the nonlinearity, the difference in viscosity can be
considered, and the cone length can be made longer to increase the resolution.
In practice, however, the installation of the flowmeter may be limited and
certain measurement ranges may have to be satisfied.
In this paper, a method is
presented to determine the shape and structural parameters of the floater to
minimize the oscillation of the floater while satisfying the measurement range
when the length of the cone is limited during the installation of the
rotameter.
Three-dimensional steady flow simulations were performed to scale where the gravity and the drag force are equal, and then three-dimensional unsteady flow simulations were carried out to analyze the trend of hydrodynamic oscillation force acting on the floater. CFD simulation results showed that the DFC floater was the least oscillatory one in the measurement range. They also showed that four structural dimensions of the DFC floater have a significant influence on the oscillation characteristics.
