초음파 유량계를 통하는 기체유동의 CFD 해석

A CFD Analysis of Gas Flow through an Ultrasonic Meter

Ultrasonic flow metering(UFM) technology is being received much attention from a variety of industrial fields to exactly measure the flow rate. The UFM has much advantage over other conventional flow meter systems, since it has no moving parts, and offers good accuracy and reliability without giving any disturbances to measure the flow rate, thereby not causing pressure losses in the flow fields. In the present study, 3-dimensional, unsteady, compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved by a finite volume scheme, based upon the second order upwind scheme for spatial derivatives and the multi-stage Runge-Kutta integral method for time derivatives. In order to simulate multi-path ultrasonic flow meter, an excited pressure signal is applied to three different locations upstream, and the pressure signals are received at three different locations downstream. The mean flow velocities are calculated by the time difference between upstream and downstream propagating pressure signals. The obtained results show that the present CFD method simulates successfully ultrasonic meter gas flow and the mean velocity measured along the chord near the wall is considerably influenced by the boundary layers.