Dry Calibration of Ultrasonic

Flowmeters with Natural Gas

up to 285 bar

Jos van der Grinten - NMi EuroLoop

 Dry Calibration of
Ultrasonic Flow Meters with
Natural Gas up to 285 bar

Jos van der Grinten

Chief Metrologist, NMi EuroLoop

 Contents
Introduction
Metering accurately at 285 bar?
Theory
Experimental set-up
Results
Conclusions

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 Introduction
Pipelines
BBL
Northstream
Southstream

Metering
>> 100 bar
USMs
No calibration
facilities

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 Metering accurately at 285 bar?
Method
Calibrate at highest available pressure (60 bar)
covering the meters flowrate range
Check speed of sound (SoS)
at zero flow conditions,
at pressures up to the operational pressure ,
using natural gas
If criteria are met,
use 60 bar curve at 285 bar
expand uncertainty

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 Metering accurately at 285 bar?
Assumptions
Meter curve weakly dependent on pressure
USM is real flow velocity meter
evidenced by type approval tests
Change in path length << path length
or is compensated
If speed of sound is correctly measured,
then flow velocity is measured correctly as well

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 Theory USM principle
c v cos( ) L
T fw
L v
c v cos( ) L
Trev
L Trev T fw
2c L L c
T fw Trev 2 T fw Trev
L Trev T fw
2v cos( ) L L v
T fw Trev 2 cos( ) T fw Trev

If increased pressure causes no change of the

geometry, c will match theory and consequently
v will be measured correctly
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 Theory Speed of Sound (p, t)
Natural Gas

700.0

Speed of Sound [m/s]

650.0

600.0

550.0

500.0
301
281
261

450.0
241

650.0-700.0
221
201

600.0-650.0
181

400.0
161

550.0-600.0
141

500.0-550.0
121

350.0
101

-10 450.0-500.0
81

Absolute Pressure [bar]

61

5 400.0-450.0
41

20 350.0-400.0
21

35 Temperature [C]
1

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 Theory Speed of Sound (p, t)
Nitrogen

650.0

Speed of Sound [m/s]

600.0

550.0

500.0

450.0
301
281
261

400.0
241

600.0-650.0
221
201

550.0-600.0
181

350.0
161

500.0-550.0
141

450.0-500.0
121

300.0
101

-10 400.0-450.0
81

Absolute Pressure [bar]

61

5 350.0-400.0
41

20 300.0-350.0
21

35 Temperature [C]
1

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 Experimental set-up
6 x USM 16 ANSI 2500# NorSok
Gauge pressure 0 350 bar at Pr point
Barometer in control room
Pt100 temperature transmitters (HART)
Inside temperature
Body temperature
Ambient temperature
All instruments interfaced with our CMS that logs
all transmitters
Meter log recorded at our diagnostics computer
Gas composition averaged during filling process

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 Experimental set-up
GC

10 10

T P T

T
Piston compressor
T

Test pressures: 31, 151, 285 bara

Measurands: SoS, VoG, TUSM, Tbody, Tamb, P

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 Experimental set-up preparation

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 Experimental set-up

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 Problem solving

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 Criteria for acceptance
Max deviation between measured SoS and the
SoS calculated from the gas composition:
within 0.3% (originally 0.2%)
Equation of State both AGA-10 and GERG2008
Average SoS
Dispersion of SoS values between chords,
high low or 2s(c1..n) 0.5 m/s
Zero flow velocity: average within 0.006 m/s

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 Results process
Pressure Test and Dry Calibration USM 1
700 20.0
Meter pressure P [bara]
SoS
SoS GERG 2008 [m/s]
Pressure [bara] & Speed of Sound [m/s]

600 18.0
Ambient t [C]
Meter body t [C]
Gas inside meter t [C]
500 16.0

Temprature [C]
400 14.0

300 12.0

200 10.0

100 8.0

0 6.0
14:00 20:00 2:00 8:00 14:00 20:00 2:00 8:00 14:00 20:00 2:00 8:00 14:00 20:00 2:00 8:00
Time [hh:mm]
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 Results SoS and theory
SoS and theory Dry Calibration USM 2
350

300 1.0

250
Pressure [bara]

SoS rel diff [%]

200 0.0

150

Meter pressure P [bara]

100 -1.0
SoS rel diff GERG 2008[%]
SoS rel diff AGA-10 [%]
50 target 0.30%

0 -2.0
20:00 22:00 0:00 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00
Time [hh:mm]
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 Results SoS path dispersion
SoS path dispersion Dry Calibration USM 3
350 6.0
Meter pressure P [bara]

2*stdev Ch_SoS [m/s]

2stdev(SoS) [m/s]
300 5.0
target 0.10%

250 4.0
Pressure [bara]

200 3.0

150 2.0

100 1.0

50 0.0

0 -1.0
14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 0:00 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00
Time [hh:mm]
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 Results VoG at zero flow
Zero Flow Test USM 6 Master & Slave
350 0.035
Meter pressure P [bara]
1 Ch Slave VoG [m/s]
4 Ch Avg M VoG [m/s]
300 0.025
target 0.006 m/s

250 0.015
Pressure [bara]

VoG [m/s]
200 0.005

150 -0.005

100 -0.015

50 -0.025

0 -0.035
8:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 0:00 2:00 4:00
Time [hh:mm]
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 Results uncertainty
Pres- Temper- # GERG AGA-10 2 UCMC, Utot,
sure ature 2008 average stdev GERG
GERG
[bar a] [C] Average [%] [%] [%] [%]
[%]
284.09 14.59 2791 -0.27 -0.12 0.01 0.12 0.13
0.25 0.10
283.26 13.29 13010 -0.27 -0.13 0.01 0.12 0.13
0.46 0.18
151.61 12.79 1861 -0.15 -0.07 0.00 0.12 0.13
0.06 0.05
32.23 10.22 1831 -0.48 -0.45 0.01 0.12 0.13
0.01 0.03

GERG2008 uncertainty 0.10%

AGA-10 uncertainty 0.1% - 0.3% - 0.5%
pressure 0.08%, temperature 0.04%
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 AGA-10 / GERG2008 1 [%]
0.20%

0.15%

0.10% 0.15%-0.20%

Speed of Sound [m/s]

0.10%-0.15%
0.05%
0.05%-0.10%
0.00% 0.00%-0.05%
-0.05% -0.05%-0.00%
-0.10%--0.05%
-0.10%
-0.15%--0.10%
-0.15% -0.20%--0.15%
-0.20%
1
21
41
61
81
101
121
141
161
-10 181
0 201 Absolute Pressure [bar]
10 221
20 241
261
30 281
301
40
Temperature [C]

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 Conclusions
Dry calibrations
Nitrogen generally used
EuroLoop can also use natural gas
Advantage of nat. gas is that dry calibrations are
performed with substantially higher SoS values:
Nat. Gas 660 m/s versus Nitrogen 470 m/s
At 151 bar and 5C ~ 15C SoS is hardly
depending on temperature
SoS calculations between AGA-10 and
GERG2008 differ at 285 bar by 0.15% and
match within their uncertainties

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 Thank you !

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