Calculation

EXPERIMENT 1
Converting mass flow rate reading to standard condition; 0, 1.0132 bar
Table 2, row 1;
P1V1/T1=P2V2/T2
0.86bar x 12.5LPM/295.6K x (273K/1.0132bar)
= 9.8LPM.
Converting rotameter reading to standard condition; 20, 1.0132 bar
Table 2, row 1;
P1V1/T1=P2V2/T2
0.86bar x10LPM/295.6K x (273K/1.0132bar)
= 8.41LPM.
EXPERIMENT 2
Obtaining density of air, air
From Table 3, row 1;
air = P/RT
= 0.86E5Pa / (287Pam3/kgK x 297.2K)
= 1.01 kg/m3
Converting P from mbar to N/m2
From Table 3, row 1;
0.54mbar x (100N/m2)/(1mbar) = 54N/m2
Obtaining calculated flowrate, Qcal
From Table 3, row 1;
Qcal = d2/4 1/(1-4) (2P/air)
= (0.00635m)2/4 1/(1-0.54) (2(54N/m2)/1.01kg/m3)
= 0.00034m3/s
Converting Qcal from m3/s to LPM
From Table 4, row 1;
0.00018 m3/s x 1000L/ 1m3 x 60s/1m = 10.8 LPM
Calculating Discharge Coefficient, Cd
From Table 4, row 1;
Cd = Qactual/Qcalculated
= 10/10.8
= 0.93
EXPERIMENT 3
Obtaining density of air, air

From Table 5, row 1;

air = P/RT
= 0.85E5Pa / (287Pam3/kgK x 296.7K)
= 1.0 kg/m3
Converting P from mbar to N/m2
From Table 5, row 1;
0.72mbar x (100N/m2)/(1mbar) = 72N/m2
Obtaining calculated flowrate, Qcal
From Table 5, row 1;
= d/D = 0.00635/0.0127 = 0.5
Qcal = d2/4 1/(1-4) (2P/air)
= (0.00635m)2/4 1/(1-0.54) (2(72N/m2)/1.0kg/m3)
= 0.00039m3/s
Converting Qcal from m3/s to LPM
From Table 6, row 6;
0.00061 m3/s x 1000L/ 1m3 x 60s/1m = 36.6 LPM
Calculating Discharge Coefficient, Cd
From Table 6, row 6;
Cd = Qactual/Qcalculated
= 35LPM / 36.6LPM
= 0.96

Discussion
Ideal gas law dictates that the state of an amount of gas is determined by its pressure,
volume, and temperature. It is most frequently introduce in the form of PV=nRT
This experiment was conducted in order to obtain the flow rate measurement by
utilizing mass flow meter and rotameter and to compare flow rate measurement by utilizing
mass flow rate meter and rotameter.
The experiment utilized the Gas Flow measurement Bench which allows for the study
of the flow of a compressible gas (compressed air) using different flow measuring device;
electronic flowmeter, orifice, venturi and rotameter. The experiment consisted of three parts.
The first part of the experiment was an experiment on the determination of the
operation and characteristic of mass flow meter and rotameter. Its objective was to obtain

and compare the flow rate by utilizing mass flow meter and rotameter. The results obtained
adhered to the ideal gas law, as the trend of the results show that the pressure decreases with
increasing volumetric flowrate. The reading on the mass flow meter differs quite a lot from
the one set on the rotameter. This could be explained by the effects of fittings across the
pipeline which cause pressure drop along the flowpath or due to instabilities in the air flow.
Converting the mass flow rate reading from the mass flow meter and rotameter, it is found
that under their standard conditions the values lowered as their STP conditions are at lower
temperatures. The difference between rotameter values and mass flow meter values at STP
can be seen from the two graphs. Slight difference can be observed when the experiment was
conducted at 1 bar, while at 3 bar the difference are more significant. These STP conditions
are stated simply to define the standard volumetric flow rates of a substance if it were an
ideal gas at standard conditions.
The second part of the experiment was conducted by deviating the gas flowpath to the
venturi placed pipeline. This part of the experiment was conducted to determine the operation
and characteristic of venturi meter. Venturi meters are flow measurement instruments which
use a converging section of pipe to increase the flow velocity which correspondingly causes a
pressure drop from which the flowrate can be deduced. The results obtained from the
experiment

shows a proportionality between the rotameter values and the differential

pressures. The calculated flowrate however differs from the experimental flowrate that is set
on the rotameter. The ratio between the actual flowrate and calculated flowrate will give us
the discharge coefficient this is because the fact air is a compressible fluid thus in a smaller
space the reading would differ. Upon calculation it is found that the discharge coefficient to
be generally low during our test at 1 bar, however at 3 bar the discharge coefficient was much
higher. It is typically given that discharge coefficient for venturi is 0.985, determining the
discharge coefficient for flowmeter using gas is much harder than by using liquid, thus the
difference between the two values could indicate an error made during operation or due to the
initial instability of the flow during the start of the experiment. In practice, a venturi meter is
preferred as it has no restriction pipe flowpath, has no moving parts, can be manufactured to
fit any required pipe size, and are not affected by temperature and pressure within the pipe.
However, due to its accurate shape requirement it is relatively expensive to manufacture.
The third experiment involved the use of orifice meter. It is conducted to determine
the operation and characteristic of orifice meter. The experiment was ran twice using absolute
pressure of 1 bar and 3 bar. Orifice meter has a relatively simple design and occupies minimal

space as it consists of a plate with a hole in the middle. The data from the experiments shows
that the differential pressure reading is higher on the orifice meter than on the venturi meter.
The trend of the orifice meter calculate volumetric discharge also follows a proportionality
with increasing rotameter value. In terms of calculated volumetric discharge and actual
volumetric discharge, at 1 bar, the difference is quite large which gives a generally low
coefficient of discharge. However, at 3 bar the difference is low and gives a large discharge
coefficient of up to 0.96.