Emerson’s Karl Stappert presents Smart Meters and Prover Technology Advancements Reduce Uncertainty at the Emerson Exchange Americas Virtual Series. Here’s his presentation abstract:
This session will discuss the advantages of applying smart flow metering technologies to reduce the operational uncertainty of a fiscal metering system and advancements in flow prover technology that improves the economics of proving smart meters.
Karl opened describing industry standards and regulatory agencies and their requirements for calibrating and validating measurement instruments used in fiscal and custody transfer applications.
He highlighted statistical process control concepts noting that all measurements vary. Improvements to reduce this variability depends on system design and management actions. Improvements cannot be accomplished if the equipment and the management of the equipment doesn’t allow for it.
Traditional flow technologies inherently increase system measurement variability and uncertainty. The meter factor changes with density, viscosity, flow rate, Reynolds number, temperature and pressure. The meter is also susceptible to wear, flow surges & pulsation, and dirty fluids in the process. A lack of diagnostics increases operating uncertainty for these meters.
Smart flow meters reduce measurement variability and uncertainty across process conditions. The proving process can also cause measurement uncertainties.
The Emerson Compact Provers reduce proving flow noise and improve prove repeatability with smart meters.
Karl described Emerson’s new generation of compact provers with reduced piston assembly weight which provides smoother cycling of the piston. Its larger diameter piston with a conical upstream shape reduces pressure drop and flow disturbances caused by the cycling of the piston.
The smart meter diagnostics enable robust process control methods for verifying overall system performance. Diagnostics combined with primary and secondary instrument measurements facilitate sophisticated verification analytics which provide effective and efficient system verification and predictive maintenance.
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Visit the Plantweb digital ecosystem section on Emerson.com for more on these and other operational analytics to drive improved performance.
