Non-invasive Flow Measurement Substituting a Magnetive Inductive Meter
On one of Berlin's waterworks, drinking water is pumped from the western banks of Lake Tegel since 1877. Today, the plant pumps a total volume of up to 260,000 m³ drinking water every day using 116 vertical wells and a horizontal filter well.
The untreated water is pumped into the waterworks using eight electric pumps at a depth of 30 to 60 m. It is then aerated in atomization towers and subsequently filtered to produce clean water. Water is fed from huge purified water containers into the drinking water system via several distributing lines where the amount of drinking water flowing through is measured. Magnetic-inductive flowmeters were previously used for this purpose.
However, several measuring points had to be repaired due to wear and tear on the meters. Replacing the magnetic-inductive flowmeters with new ones would have meant a major investment when purchasing new flowmeters for such large pipe dimensions, as well as expensive pipe work and associated delays, draining of pipe sections and time-consuming filling of the pipe sections for decommissioning.
Simple attachment of FLEXIM's non-invasive ultrasonic flow metering technology to the measuring points has proven to be the superior alternative. The FLUXUS flowmeters are considerably cheaper than magnetic-inductive flowmeters in the given nominal sizes (here: DN1400, but starting from DN200 and even below) and retrofitting can take place during ongoing operation and no underground engineering is required. The clamp-on ultrasonic transducers are simply attached to the outside of the pipes and are thus practically wear and maintenance free.
Despite the outer coating and inner lining of the steel and cast iron pipes, FLUXUS produces an excellent measuring signal (even steel reinforced concrete pipes aren't a challenge).
FLUXUS replaces the existing magnetic-inductive flowmeters only as a flowmeter, but not physically: the worn out devices did not have to be dismantled when setting up the non-invasive measuring point - another cost advantage for the plant operator.
Advantages
- Accurate and reliable, practically wear-free, maintenance-free measurement
- Absolute hygiene: no direct contact between the measuring system and the medium
- Cost advantage over magnetic-inductive flow measurement
- No underground engineering or pipe work required for setting up flow measurement points
- Installation during ongoing operation
- Very good measuring signal despite inner lining and outer coating on the pipe
