How to solve with vibrations with Coriolis mass flow meters

A Coriolis mass flow meter is known as a very accurate instrument and it has many benefits compared to other measuring devices. However, every measuring principle has its challenges, as well as the Coriolis principle. You might have to deal with a lot of vibrations in heavy industry when using Coriolis instruments in low flow applications.

Can vibrations affect the accuracy of a Coriolis mass flow meter?

In industrial applications, all kinds of vibrations with different amplitudes are very common. A Coriolis meter measures a mass flow by vibrating a sensor tube, which is intentionally out of phase when fluid passes through. It is somewhat sensitive to vibrations that are close to the resonance frequency of the sensor tube (360 Hz, for example) or a higher harmonic of this frequency.

In an industrial environment, unwanted vibrations are more likely to occur. Coriolis flow meter manufacturers do everything possible to reduce the effect of vibrations on the measured value by using common technical solutions, such as:

higher driving frequencies

dual sensor tubes

different sensor shapes

mass inertia (e.g. mass blocks)

passive and active vibration compensation

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So yes, vibrations can influence the measuring accuracy of your Coriolis flow meter, but only if the vibrations have a frequency close to the resonance frequency. What can you do about this? This depends on the kind of vibration.

Can you test the performance of a Coriolis flow meter?

A well-performing flow meter and controller will give the best process result. Thus, if heavy industrial vibrations are expected, it is advisable to test a Coriolis flow meter in your application before fully trusting it. Filtering the measuring signal can blur your judgement in some cases, but if you want to test the performance of a flow meter, filtering can be confusing.

Installation of Coriolis flow meters for dosing

In certain situations, the Coriolis flow meter may not function as expected. This could lead to variations in process output, such as differences in product color if it is used for dosing color in detergent. In such cases, it is recommended to monitor the raw measuring signal to assess the flow meter's performance. You can seek guidance from your flow meter manufacturer on disabling signal filtering.

Challenges to face with a Coriolis flow meter

With Coriolis instruments, the sensor tube is set into vibration by an actuator. In the case of external vibrations of approximately the same frequency, this could interfere with the measurement.

The first step to minimising their effects is to identify external vibration sources, such as trains in the surroundings and air conditioning in the building. For example, you can move the Coriolis meter to a less vulnerable location, rotate it, use a (larger) mass block, or use dampers and/or flexible tubes to decouple it.

Applications where the Coriolis flow meter is the best choice

When you want to measure mass flow in varying or unknown gas or liquid mixtures or supercritical gases, a Coriolis-based mass flow meter is particularly useful. In addition to measuring direct mass flows, which eliminates inaccuracies caused by fluid physical properties, these devices are highly accurate and have a high repeatability. A Coriolis flow meter is the ultimate fluid flow meter that is flexible, reliable and extremely accurate.

In automated extraction of natural compounds from raw materials, such as plants, coriolis flow meters have been used successfully to improve accuracy and quality. Read the customer story to learn how measurement and control of supercritical CO2 flows and temperatures enable selective and accurate extraction, ensuring repeatable yields.

A Coriolis-based flow control system was used in German research on microorganism growth to maintain a constant, stable level of liquid in two reactor vessels containing microorganisms. Using a Coriolis flow meter/pump combination, reproducible and accurate dosing of newly developed medicines has been applied to investigate their effects.

Beijing Sincerity has developed over years to manufacture the Coriolis Mass Flow Meters industries. Through continuous research, development and transformation, we have become the leader of the Coriolis Mass Flow Meters industries in China.Beijing Sincerity has powerful technology knowledge over the flow meter industries. The Coriolis Mass Flow Meter are suitable for different kinds of industries--- high requirements testing experiments of universities, research institutes; and also the petroleum, medicine, metallurgy, electricities industries.Extreme conditions of measuring object like High/low temperature, high pressure, high viscosity, micro flow, fluctuated temperature and pressure , rapid responding time, and high preference of accuracy will no longer be unsolvable issues to our mass flow meter users.