(Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, 2012-10-29) Barone, Marcelo Aiolfi; Mattos, Márcio Coelho de; Ramos, Rogério; Loureiro, Bruno Venturini; Aibe, Valter Yoshihiko
The work uses a laboratory scaled prototype of primary pipe prover flowmeter in order to assess conformity with the requirements established by technical standards and examine the uncertainties of flow measurement performed, besides to check the reproducibility of measurements, tests with spheres of different diameters, the influence of operating parameters such as operating pressure variation and comparison with gravimetric test. The prototype is plastic tubing and considering statically defined dimensions. Inside tubing, an interfering elastomer sphere is driven by flow provided by a centrifugal pump. The detection system uses infrared light sensors able to detect the spheres passage causing pipeline interference or blockage. The acquisition data system is automatic and records the sphere transit time through each pulse signal detected as well as the pulses generated by a calibrated turbine meter, as comparison of the evaluation of process uncertainties using the technique performance with infrared sensors.