November2008

TechNote:TheCPA50EandSwirl

WhatisSwirl?
Swirlcanbedefinedasahelicalflowpatternwithinapipe,whereby
thereisacomponenttothegasvelocityvectorthatisperpendicular
tothelongitudinalaxisofthepipe.Thereareanumberofpossible
causesofswirlinapipingsystem.Someoftheseare:

Multipleelbowsortees

Mixers

Compressors

Swirl innatural gaspipingcanpersistforover200pipediameters,

due to the typically high Reynolds Number of the flow. Swirl in
liquidpipingwillgenerallydegradesomewhatsooner.
MeasurementofSwirl
Swirl can be measured in piping using a pitot tube arrangement
which measures both axial and radial velocity. The approximate
limitforthismeasurementapparatusisonedegree.
Thistypeofmeasurementisnotpracticalforindustrialinstallations
duetotheexpenseincurred.Thereforeitisdifficulttoestimatethe
amountofswirlinagivenpipingconfiguration.

The CPA 50E is 0.12 to 0.15 pipe diameters thick. The holes are
sizedtotheinsidediameterofthepipetoproducefullydeveloped
flowathighPipeReynoldsNumber(~106).

SwirlandOrificeMeters

Swirl is known to cause measurement errors in gas and liquid

meters.Theoverallimpactdependsonthedesignofthemeterand
thestrengthoftheswirl.Fororificemeters,swirlhastheeffectof
increasingthecoefficientofdischarge(Cd).Inpracticalterms,the
meterwillunderregistertheflow.

HowCanThisSinglePlateEliminateSwirl?
Therearetwoeffectswhichcombineasthefluidpassesthroughthe
plate. The first is the acceleration of the gas to over twice the
averagevelocityinthepipe.Theflowisalsosplitinto25streams,
each passing through a hole which is approximately 1 diameter
long.These2effectswilltendtostraightentheflow.

Swirlwillgenerallyhaveagreaterimpactonlowerbetaratios.At
high swirl angles (over 20 degrees) and with Beta ratios up to 0.4,
meter error can be in the 10% range (1). This effect of swirl will
reduceasswirlangleisreduced.

GRI sponsored research into orifice metering standards which was

carried out at Southwest Research Institute (3). The CPA 50E was
oneofseveralflowconditionerstested.

TwodegreesofswirlistheacceptableupperlimitspecifiedbyISO
5167.Miller(2)statesthattubebundlesreduceswirlto2orless.
This limit of 2 is likely due to both the lack of impact of this
amount of swirl has on the meter, as well as the difficulty of
measuringsmalleramounts.

Data was gathered on high swirl in bare meter tubes (no flow
conditioner). On a 17D meter run, with a swirl generator and tee
upstream,theerrorfora0.4betaratioplatewas5to6percent(in
linewithKinghorn).

CanaCPA50EEliminateSwirl?

Then, various flow conditioners were tested at different positions

along meter tubes that were 17, 29 and 45 pipe diameters long.
Different upstream piping configurations were tested to produce
flowconditionssimilartothosefoundinthefield.

The CPA 50E Flow Conditioner is a perforated plate with 25 holes.

Theholesarearrangedintwoconcentricrings,withacentralhole,
aspicturedhere.

CanadaPipelineAccessories

18883493569www.flowconditioner.com

November2008

TechNote:TheCPA50EandSwirl

The below graph represents one of the experiments conducted by

SouthwestresearchforGRI.

profile anomaly downstream. This anomaly is primarily due to the

separate jets from the flow conditioner holes, before they
recombine to a fully developed velocity profile about 5 diameters
downstream.
CPA 50E Performance
2 Elbows Out of Plane
GRI MRF Data - Beta 0.67

1.00%
0.80%
0.60%
0.40%
0.20%
0.00%
-0.20%
-0.40%
-0.60%
-0.80%
-1.00%

Deviation from Baseline Cd

Deviation from Baseline Cd

CPA 50E Performance - High Swirl

GRI MRF Data - Beta 0.40

Tap 1
Tap 2

11

13

Length in Diameters from

CPA 50E to Plate (17D Run)

1.00%
0.80%
0.60%
0.40%
0.20%
0.00%
-0.20%
-0.40%
-0.60%
-0.80%
-1.00%

Tap 1
Tap 2

Therearesomeimportantpointstonotefromthisdata:

Thedeviationfromthebaselineisverygood

Thebetaratioandupstreamconditionsmakethistestthemost
extremeswirltestconducted

Atestwithtwo elbowsoutofplane(lesssevereswirl)yielded
similarresults

11

13

Length in Diameters from

CPA 50E to Plate (17D Run)

Conclusions
TheevidenceavailableindicatesthattheCPA50Eflowconditioner
isolates the meter run from a wide variety of upstream
configurations, and helps produce excellent metering under all
conditions.

Thereisnoevidencethatanyswirlhaspassedtheflowconditioner.

Testing at higher beta ratios yields similar results for the range of
upstreampipingconfigurationstested.

References:

Forexample,thetwoelbowsoutofplaneresultsforbeta0.67ona
17diametermeterrunareshownhere.
Pointstonotefromthisdatainclude:

Similarresultsareachieved,independentofupstreampiping

Seven diameters is sufficient to achieve the criteria of no

significant Cd shift under all beta ratios and upstream piping
configurations.

1.

Kinghorn, F. C., Flow Measurement in Swirling or Asymmetric

FlowAReview,Flowcon77Proceedings,pp4571,Instituteof
Measurement&Control,Gatton&KentUK,1977

2.

Miller, R. W., Flow Measurement Engineering Handbook, Third

Edition,McGrawHill,1996

3.

Morrow, T.B., Technical Memorandum Metering Research

Facility Program Development of a Flow Conditioner
PerformanceTest,GasResearchInstitute,1997

At these higher beta ratios, orifice meters are sensitive to velocity

profile,andlesssensitivetoswirl.Thisdataindicatesthattheswirl
upstreamoftheflowconditioneristransformedtoasmallvelocity

CanadaPipelineAccessories

18883493569www.flowconditioner.com