Numerical analisys of flow conditioner efficiency

The use of flow conditioners becomes necessary in flow measurement applications where the geometry of conduits does not allow complete development of the velocity profile upstream the flowmeter. In this paper the authors present a numerical analysis, based on finite volume technique, for the evaluation of flow conditioner performance under low level perturbation conditions. The use of non structured grids was necessary because of the complexity of the geometry studied. The results of the numerical calculations were used to evaluate the efficiency of different types of flow conditioners. The efficiency was defined on the basis of different parameters that take into account flatness, uni-directionality and asymmetry of the velocity profile downstream the flow conditioner.