Flowmeter Types And How They Are Used
Author: AdrianFletcher Total views: 11 Word Count: 587
Flowmeters are used in many ways but their basic aim is to measure the flow of a particular substance passing through a tube, pipe or chamber. Why would you want to do this ?
Well, the main reason is to give you information about how a machine is operating or whether it is running efficiently. This goes for the human body or a large machine you might find in a factory. this article will cover the basic flowmeter types and explain what they are used for.
Peak flowmeters measure the flow of air running through a tube or pipe. These types of flow meters are often used to assess the fitness of a person. They can determine the lung capacity of an individual when he/she blows through the meter. Measuring the lung capacity of an individual tells a fitness instructor how capable they are and what level of exercise they should be set.
with this said, you will find that peak flowmeters are generally used to diagnose asthma. Once the condition is diagnosed, the meter is also used to manage it.
A peak flow meter is a common type of flow meter, in that it uses the displacement method to determine the flow rate of air. The displacement method is simply a float within a confined space like a pipe or tube. When air passes through the tube it moves the float. The distance that the float moves indicates or is a correlation of the flow rate.
In industry there are many applications for flowmeters. For instance, water management is an obvious use. A meter may also be used to test various components of an HVAC system, in the factory or once installed. A flowmeter is also used in many factories, particularly food processing plants that require accurate measures of substances to come together to make the perfect recipe.
To flesh this out, in the processed food industry much of the food is made by co-ordinating a number of machines and mixing various ingredients to come up with the favorite product. this is generally done by one human operator. This person needs to know exactly how much of a certain ingredient is gong into the machines and if the machines are working efficiently. The repercussions if this is not right is that the food may not taste right or that the machine may break down.
In these industries you will find all types of flowmeters. I will list a few of them here and how they work. The most popular types are the ultrasonic and thermal dispersion flowmeters. They can measure the flow rates of liquids, gases and liquids with stuff in it.
The principal behind the ultrasonic flowmeter is that the change in the frequency of an ultrasonic wave can be used to correlate the flow rate of the particular substance that has caused this change.
This is the same principal behind the Doppler shift flowmeter, that is commonly used to measure liquids that contain particulate matter, like effluent, waste water or reclaimed water.
Thermal dispersion has a similar idea except that it uses the change in heat from a particular heat source located within the pipe or tube. The change in heat will be directly related to the flow rate of the gas or liquid that is passing this heat source.
There are other types of flowmeter used in industry. These include the turbine, wheel and magnetic flowmeters. they determine the flow rates of various hydraulic machinery and can warn if there is a problem with the machine.
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Get details on how flow meters work and information about how they are used at http://www.flowmetermatters.com.
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