British Nuclear opts for ultrasonic flowmeters

London -- Engineers at British Nuclear Group are employing clamp-on ultrasonic flowmeters to tackle a difficult flow measurement application involving widely varying measurement conditions.

BNG operates a series of systems on its test rig that require calibration and has to be sure of what flow it is running at, particularly as certain areas of the operation do not contain a flow meter. This led it to opt for a portable Katflow ultrasonic flowmeter from Katronic Technologies to avoid the need to make any pipe modifications and eliminate the risk of exposure to the hazardous chemicals.

The clamp-on flowmeter was of particular interest given the nature of the liquids that are flowing through the system, said Chris Fairclough, BNG senior technical adviser. These, he said included measuring the nitric acid flow through an air sparged pipe and the recycled flow through the rig.

As they measure is both transit-time and Doppler mode, the new flowmeters have helped BNG engineers to cope with some of the more demanding locations that they needed to meter. In some locations on the system, the flow condition was not conducive to standard transit time measurement.

The Doppler application allows measurement on areas with turbulent flow -- in contrast to transit time ultrasonic measurement, Doppler principal flow meters necessitate the presence of particulate, gas bubbles or turbulences in the flow in order to take a reliable reading.

“The flowmeter allows us to validate commissioning data in a wide variety of locations, where measurements are only required for a short period of time; and to calibrate the system without the need for a permanent meter,” concluded Fairclough.