Advantages of vortex flowmeter
- The vortex flowmeter has no moving parts, and the measuring element has a simple structure, reliable performance, and long service life.
- The vortex flowmeter has a wide measuring range. The turndown ratio can generally reach 1:10.
- The volume flow of the vortex flowmeter is not affected by thermal parameters such as the temperature, pressure, density, or viscosity of the fluid being measured. Generally, no separate calibration is required. It can measure the flow of liquid, gas, or steam.
- The pressure loss caused by it is small.
- The accuracy is high, the repeatability is 0.5%, and the low maintenance.
- The cost is affordable and installation is economic.
Disadvantages of vortex flowmeter
- The volume flow of the vortex flowmeter is not affected by the temperature, pressure, density, and other thermal parameters of the measured fluid, but the final measurement result of liquid or steam should be the mass flow. For gas, the final measurement result should be the standard volume flow. Both the mass flow rate or the standard volume flow rate must be converted by fluid density, and changes in fluid density caused by changes in fluid working conditions must be considered.
- The main factors that cause flow measurement errors are: measurement errors caused by the uneven flow rate of the pipeline; the density of the medium when the fluid working condition changes cannot be accurately determined; the wet saturated steam is assumed to be dry saturated steam for measurement. If these errors are not limited or eliminated, the total measurement error of the vortex flowmeter will be very large.
- Poor vibration resistance. External vibration will cause measurement errors of the vortex flowmeter, or even fail to work normally. The high-velocity impact of the channel fluid will cause additional vibrations to the cantilever of the vortex generator, which reduces the measurement accuracy. The influence of large pipe diameter is more obvious.
- Poor adaptability to measuring dirty media. The generating body of the vortex flowmeter is very easy to be dirty by the medium or entangled by the dirt, and the change of the geometric body size will greatly affect the measurement accuracy.
- High requirements for straight pipe sections. Experts pointed out that the straight pipe section of the vortex flowmeter must ensure the front 40D and the 20D to meet the measurement requirements.
- Poor temperature resistance. Vortex flowmeters generally can only measure the fluid flow of media below 300°C.