Analysis of Cylindrical Damper Effects on Turbine Meters Accuracy in a Pulsating CNG Suction Line: An Optimal Design through CFD Simulations

Turbine meters are used in compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in abundance to measure the volumetric flow rate of the inlet gas. These types of meters are very sensitive to oscillating and pulsating flows. When the station's reciprocating compressor starts to work, due to the piston and valve performance, pulsating flow will create in the suction line and downstream of turbine meter. This pulsation makes false pulses in the meter and finally makes difference between the measured gas flow from the metering of the gas company and the amount of gas that has been sold at the station. In this study, numerical simulation of dampeners has been investigated after turbine meter and before entering gas to compressor. The goal is eliminating or reducing the effects of operating compressor in CNG station on turbine meter and reducing measurement errors. Numerical simulation of dampener was investigated by Ansys-Fluent CFD software for a CNG station with the gas inlet pressure 250 psi, inlet and outlet pipe diameter of 2 inches. In this study, several parameters such as (1) height-to-diameter ratio in the cylinder, (2) distance between dampener and compressor, and (3) volume-to-minimum volume ratio according to API 618, have been checked. The numerical results show that by increasing height-to-diameter ratio up to 3, the pulsating amplitude on Plane 1 will be reduced, and this is the best ratio according to the present results. Also, by increasing the outlet pipe length, the pressure pulsation amplitude decreases from 3.4% of pressure line in 2 m length to 0.7% in 5 m length. Moreover, the results showed 2.4% increase and 1.9% decrease in the maximum and minimum pressure for CV = 1 and CV = 16.7, respectively. Comparing fluent numerical method with previous studies shows less than 2% difference that demonstrates the validity and reliability of present investigation.

Automated summary

In this study, numerical simulation of dampeners has been conducted to eliminate or reduce the effects of the operating compressor on the turbine meter in CNG stations. The results show that increasing height-to-diameter ratio and outlet pipe length can effectively reduce pulsation amplitude and pressure pulsation.