Analysis of Bidirectional Prover Performance for Calibration of Oil Industry Flow Meters using CFD Simulation

In this study for meter factor prediction, the bidirectional pipe prover performance has been simulated by CFD techniques in two velocities as 2 and 3 m/s for kerosene and two types of crude oil. Because of moving boundary condition, the simulations have been carried out with dynamic mesh. In the first stage of the simulation to have fully developed flow in the calibration section the prover pipe has been investigated without the sphere, next simulations has been repeated with ball in flow through the prover but with same conditions at the first stage. To achieve the lowest possible error, several simulations were conducted with two turbulence models: standard k- and k-. For validation, the CFD calculated pipe friction coefficient has been compared to empirical relations. The velocity distribution has been discussed for output crosssection and around the ball in prover. The results show that the effects of Reynolds number variation on meter factor are ignorable. Moreover, this work illustrates that CFD simulations is an inexpensive powerful tool for evaluation of prover performance. Also these simulations can be used for design of provers and detectors positions determination, etc.