Vortex Flow Meter Working Principle and Applications

Working Principle of Vortex Flow Meter

Vortex flow meters utilize a bluff body or cylinder mounted in a pipe spool that creates alternating vortices behind the cylinder. The frequency of the alternating vortex is proportional to the fluid velocity. Vortex flow meters have no moving parts to maintain or repair, and the signal is read electronically and simply converted to a flow rate. Vortex meters work well with most clean fluids and have similar application ranges to DP flow meters. Vortex flow meters are also referred to as vortex shedding flow meters or oscillatory flow meters. These types of flow meters are used to measure the vibrations of the downstream vortexes caused by an obstruction in the flowing stream. Each obstruction has a vital liquid flow speed at which vortex shedding takes place. This vortex shedding occurs at the instant when alternating low pressure zones gets created in the downstream. These sporadic pressure zones enable the barrier to move towards the low pressure zone. By means of sensors gauging the vortices the flow rate can be easily detected.

Vortex flow meter Main Features

1. No moving parts, long-term stability, simple structure and easy installation and maintenance

2. The output of the sensor is a pulse frequency, and its frequency is linear with the actual flow rate of the measured fluid. The zero point has no drift, the performance is very stable, and there are many structural forms.

available in the form of a pipe-inserted flow sensor

3. The accuracy is high, usually the measurement accuracy of liquid is ±1%; the measurement accuracy of gas is ±1.5%

4. The measurement range is wide, within the range of Reynolds number 2×10?~7×10?, up to 1:20

5. The pressure loss is small (about 1/4~1/2 of the orifice flowmeter), which belongs to the energy-saving flow meter

6. The installation method is flexible. According to the different process pipelines on site, it can be installed horizontally, vertically and at different angles.

7. It adopts anti-interference circuit and anti-vibration sensor head, which has certain anti-environmental vibration performance

8. Using low-power single-chip microcomputer technology, a 3V10AH lithium battery can be used for more than 5 years

9. The software corrects the non-linearity of the instrument coefficient to improve the measurement accuracy

10. EEPROM is used to protect the cumulative flow from power failure, and the protection time is more than 10 years

Here is the list of some of the applications of vortex flowmeters：

• Measuring the flow of liquid suspension
• Higher viscosity fluid
• Stream measurement
• Water application
• Chilled water
• Hot water
• Water and glycol mixtures
• Condensate measurement
• Portable water
• Solvents
• Acids
• Ultrapure water
• De-ionized water
• Natural gas
• Air
• Water
• Crude oil
• Compressed air