Thursday , March 28 2024

Flow Measurement and Control in Gas Pipeline System using Intelligent Sonic Nozzle Sensor

Mouloud GUEMANA
Engineering Physics and Hydrocarbons Laboratory, University of Boumerdes
35000 DZ, Algeria

Slimane AISSANI
Engineering Physics and Hydrocarbons Laboratory, University of Boumerdes
35000 DZ, Algeria

Ahmed HAFAIFA
Advanced Automation and Industrial Diagnosis Laboratory, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Djelfa
17000 DZ, Algeria

Abstract: In industrials sector, many engineering applications used the intelligent techniques to savings on maintenance costs. In this work, we discuss a new intelligent measurement technique of gas flow, in industrials compressions systems, using a sonic nozzle sensor, and we examine the performance of the calibration and measurement of gas flow used in the transport of high volume of natural gas pipeline system. We propose the development of this approach and we discuss the feasibility and validity of this intelligent sensor in real plant. This work demonstrates that sonic nozzles can be operated successfully as a prover for natural gas and for the critical flow in nozzles for unprocessed natural gas.

Keywords: Computer flow control, compression gas pipeline, counting gas, critical flow, gas flow measurement, sonic nozzle.

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CITE THIS PAPER AS:
Mouloud GUEMANA, Slimane AISSANI, Ahmed HAFAIFA, Flow Measurement and Control in Gas Pipeline System using Intelligent Sonic Nozzle Sensor, Studies in Informatics and Control, ISSN 1220-1766, vol. 20 (2), pp. 85-96, 2011. https://doi.org/10.24846/v20i2y201101

1. Introduction

The measurement of the fluids flows in industrial field is a very widespread measurement, in the oil sector, the production of oil and the invoicing of the produced quantities of oil is carried out on the knowledge of the flows of these liquids in drains which can reach two meters in diameter. In this sector, the results of measurements are used to establish an invoicing and enter the field of legal metrology. Indeed, the measurement of the flow of the fluids is a very important operation in any industrial activity. Its importance is dictated by the control and the regulation of the manufacturing process of the products, by the starting of the energy machines (engines, gas turbines, pumps etc.). Lastly, by the marketing of the energy fluids in the natural gas transactions, the importance of this sector is presented in the worldwide market, the worldwide market of the flowmeters was estimated at 2500 million dollars in 1995 [10], and is in constant increase [12]. The commercial transactions of the debitmetric measurements of gas and oil, they represent also an enormous sales turnover in these last years. Being given the size of these markets, it is surprising to note that the precision and the capacity of the majority of the flowmeters remain weak in comparison with the measuring instruments used for the other sizes (temperature, pressure). In this work we will expose the principle and the fundamental aspects of the flows of fluids in the industrial conduits and will try to determine of them the problems of measurement of the flow. We will be interested more particularly in the practical problem of the debitmetric, we will recall in what follows the definitions given in the certain principal terms suitable for the measurement of the gas flow. We purpose in this study to measure the mass flow rate of a compressible fluid through a convergent divergent nozzle with respect to inlet and outlet pressures. The gas flow meters must operate properly and reliably, because the picked up data constitute not only the basis for billing quantities of delivered gas, but also for the rational exploitation of the pipeline network. Nowadays, seen to the transported quantities of gas, the small errors of parameters measurement can have serious consequences [23].

This paper examines the performance of on-site calibration of sonic nozzle sensor in gas pipeline system. The regulation of the sonic nozzle sensor during the periodic checks, measuring instruments is compared to the standards in order to verify their performance; these calibrations are generally performed on site. For the gas pipeline system, an on site calibration is generally difficult to run because it requires to provide a headline to install standard meter and also to be able to impose rates flow corresponding to the points defined by the rules. In practice these sensor are calibrated in the workshop facilities which are approved by the competent authorities. Among this calibration, we can also use the venturi sonic nozzles [7].

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