Vitalii Prokopiv, Author at Flowmetrics

Upgrade to Radio-Frequency Quadrupole Linac

Posted on May 26, 2016December 31, 2018 by Vitalii Prokopiv

After a successful test of the Radio-Frequency Quadrupole Linac, RFQ, engineers and physicists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will be upgrading this superconducting linear accelerator. On its first trial run the RFQ accepted nearly 100% of the source beam without failure, a remarkable feat with so many complex control systems.

This upgrade plans to adapt the front end of the accelerator producing high-intensity proton beams for experiments.

The lab’s current RFQ, which sits at the beginning of the laboratory’s accelerator chain, accelerates a negative hydrogen ion beam to 0.75 million electronvolts, or MeV. The new RFQ, which is longer, accelerates a beam to 2.1 MeV, nearly three times the energy. Transported beam current, and therefore power, is the key improvement with the new RFQ. The current RFQ delivers 54-watt beam power; the new RFQ delivers beam at 21 kilowatts – an increase by a factor of nearly 400.

Innovation on the new upgrade hinges on a waveform cut out of positioning vanes within the accelerator. The waveform is designed with longer distances between peaks and troughs as the beam travels along the accelerator. This lengthening accounts for increased speed as the beam accelerates, keep the time between peaks and troughs equal the entire journey through the RFQ.

Click here for the full article on Phys.org.

Real-Time Analytics Transform Manufacturing

Posted on May 25, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

Data is exploding around the world in every industry, and manufacturing is running into a logistics problem. With the increase in data points and measurements, how can we use it to efficiently organize and improve performance of our processes?

Energy Efficiency

The entire industry of manufacturing makes up a significant portion of global energy consumption, but on a per unit basis that has been decreasing continuously. Manufacturers are using data to work smarter and reduce their use of energy. The best use of data analysis for improving energy efficiency is determining untimely consumption and excess usage. It can also prioritize specific retrofits for machinery that consume more energy per unit than newer models.

Equipment Performance

By garnering data as granular as machine specific measurements a production manager can see troublesome machinery in detail, and plant managers can coordinate repairs or replacements before production is halted from breakdowns. In certain energy production situations catastrophe can be avoided before start-up by knowing the precise condition of pipelines and machinery.

Click here for the full article by Bill Kenworthy.

Fluid Pressure Sanitizes Food?

Posted on May 24, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

For years we have been preserving food through the application of extreme heat. Pasteurization has been the staple in protecting consumers by killing any harmful bacteria by heating a food item to a high enough temperature for a long enough duration. The exact temperature and duration are dependent on the pathogen the food is being treated against. A new method uses high pressure to achieve the same goal.

High Pressure Processing, HPP, sounds frightening in terms of food but in fact is less detrimental to nutritional characteristics than the common method. In common pasteurization temperatures used are so brutal that often vitamins and useful proteins breakdown, in the end the food is safe for consumption but at a degraded nutritional value. In HPP vitamins and proteins are not destroyed, but bacteria within the food item are ruptured.

Pressures used can reach 87,000 psi delivered via a pressurized water bath within a pressure chamber, and some even use moderate heat to further prevent spoilage in certain products.

HPP promises the same level of food safety that heat pasteurization does, but without damaging the nutrients in fruits and vegetables. According to Dr. Barrett, several studies have found that vitamin C is relatively unaffected by the process for instance.

Click here for the full article by Sorina Buzatu.

Bearing Life from Materials and Design

Posted on May 23, 2016January 10, 2019 by Vitalii Prokopiv

Rotating process machinery depends on bearings, either rolling element bearings or fluid film bearings. These parts counteract gravity to keep the shafts moving as freely as possible without wear or excessive maintenance. The characteristics of each type of bearing leads to the maintenance, life span, and type of load possible for the application.

Babbitt is a widespread material for bearings. It allows for smooth start-up and shut-down while offering conform-ability and embed-ability reducing damage to the spinning shaft. Babbitt bearings must be limited to a maximum temperature of 130°C or warping may lead to misalignment. Bronze can be a substitute for Babbitt bearings for higher temperature applications but can be damaged more easily by contaminants.

Fluid film bearings depend heavily upon their design, and application specific designs can be highly specific. An operating pressure must be developed in the fluid to counteract gravity. Bearing clearance, the difference between the bearing bore and shaft diameter, greatly affects dynamic performance from temperature changes and power loss. Even the manner in which lubrication is introduced into the bearing can drastically change the performance. A flooded bearing will have higher power losses and operating temperatures than a directed lubrication bearings.

Click here for the full article from Processing Magazine.

Aircraft Maintenance With Flying Colors

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

Whether you are handling a commercial jet or a passenger plane, caring for an aircraft is an important task that should be handled with caution. Successful aircraft maintenance is dependent upon the tools and resources you need to complete the job, however, so getting access to the best resources is imperative. What exactly is needed to complete aircraft maintenance to the highest standards possible? What does the process of aircraft maintenance involve? Well, a flow meter can be commonly used to measure and test air conditions in the aircraft, gauge fuel consumption and evaluate overall performance. These are important metrics for any aircraft, so if you want to pass aircraft maintenance with flying colors, you should invest in a capable flow meter to help.

How a Flow Meter Can Improve Maintenance Routines

The typical maintenance routine for an aircraft includes four different stages. They are commonly referred to as A, B, C and D checks, and each of them examines an aircraft at a different level of scrutiny. The parts of aircraft maintenance include:

The D check: The most extensive of these is completed only every 6 years. In this examination, the aircraft is nearly disassembled in order to inspect all parts.
The C check: This inspection occurs more frequently at every 20-24 months, on average, unless a minimum number of flight hours has been reached first. It is a substantial inspection that may take up to two weeks to complete.
The B check: Every 6-8 months, an aircraft is due for a B check, which entails slightly more in-depth inspection than the A check.
The A check: The frequency of this check varies based on the manufacturer’s recommendation, the number of flight hours logged and the type of aircraft.

A flow meter can help automate many of the processes entailed in each of these checks.

Measurement Solutions for Aircrafts

When you need to perform essential maintenance, a big part of the process is the measurement of certain substances and emissions. Some of these include:

Fuel
Lubrication
Hydraulic fluid
Coolant
Engine emissions
Leaks

Each of these requires a different approach to effective and accurate measurement. A high quality flow meter, however, will likely be able to measure all of these components and gather detailed readings of the data that is most necessary to measuring the performance of an aircraft. The latter of these items, leaks, are particularly important to detect early. A flow meter can do so by sensing any abnormalities or continual decreases in pressure.

Finding the Right Flow Meter for Aircraft Maintenance

It’s clear that a flow meter offers solutions to many of the steps in an aircraft maintenance routine, but how can you tell which will best meet your needs? You want one, of course, that will minimize additional effort and perform the required steps easily. You should consider these factors when selecting one:

Inclusion of features such as pickups and signal conditioners
Size of turbine
Measurement rates
Ability to process chemicals

There are many other items that you should check for, too, according to the needs of your aircraft maintenance needs.

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New Compressors Breathe Life into Water Treatment Plants

Posted on May 19, 2016January 10, 2019 by Vitalii Prokopiv

Air supply is critical in many industries, sometimes surprisingly. Water treatment facilities are not the first buildings where one would expect air supply to vastly affect efficiency.

In water treatment plants for the Rubiera system, the process is built into four parallel pipelines, and compressors are used during the oxidization and nitrification portions of the process. The initial setup used compressors rated for much more capacity than was required by the facility, and as such the process was over-supplied for long periods of the day.

“The first step was to change the set-up, linking all the machines together. It was seen, in fact, that it would have been sufficient to use only one compressor for generating the process air during the period of less demand, but that compressor had to be very versatile and offer a wide range of capacity variations.”

Click here for the full article from Process Worldwide.

Precision Volume Pumps

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

For when you need an exact amount of fluid moved from one spot to another, precision pumps will disburse exactly what you need when you need it. The two categories of precision dosage pumps are piston and diaphragm pumps.

Piston Pumps

These types of pumps are designed for continuous flows against a multitude of pressures, even upwards of 1000 Barg. A piston inside the pump recirculates up and down with seals to prevent leaks and create suction.

Diaphragm Pumps

Diaphragm pumps utilize a plastic membrane or multiples of membranes to create a vacuum and discharge the fluid. Because there is no direct contact with the pumping mechanics, these pumps are situated well for toxic, harmful, or abrasive fluids.

Click here for the full article by Amin Almasi.

Valve Flow Characteristics

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

In selecting a valve for use plenty of characteristics must be suitable for your desired application. Readers recently asked Béla Lipták some questions regarding control valves and their characteristics. Some of the questions and answers are presented below. The complete list can be found at the link below.

What are the definitions of wide and small ranges in terms of flow turndown?

A control loop will be stable if its gain does not change with variations in the load. The loop gain is the product of four gains (process, controller, sensor, valve) and, ideally, it should stay constant at about 0.5. If the process gain varies with load and the sensor and controller gains are constant, the ideal valve characteristic is one that will compensate for the variation in process gain, so that if the process gain rises with load, the valve gain drops (equal percentage); if the process gain drops with load, the valve gain rises (quick opening) and if the process gain remains constant, the valve gain should also be constant (linear).

How would I go about measuring flow of hydrocarbons with 1% sand by mass included?

Either Coriolis or vortex can wear at a rate proportional to the percentage of sand in the flow, and both meters could have a short lives. Sharp-edge orifices are similarly vulnerable. The choice is affected by flow rate and pipe size.

I would worry about any Coriolis flowmeter with a relatively thin metal wall. Magnetic, ultrasonic and flow nozzles have been recommended. With a sufficiently high flow rate, an elbow meter will also work. Any DP meter might need a chemical seal or liquid purge to avoid plugging.

Click here for the full article on Control Global.

Coriolis Flow Meter Calibration

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

Calibrating a flow meter means first testing the meter for its unique deviation from reality, then altering the meter or program in some way to negate that unique offset. Each meter has its own flaws, quirks, and strengths well within the standards to adjust for in specific applications, and calibration tests are designed to identify these for adjustment later.

At first a two-by-two hypothesis matrix is used to determine if the meter reads a true positive, false alarm, covert failure, or true negative based on an assumption of how the meter will read. If it is assumed the meter is accurate and tests to read accurately the result is a true positive. A meter suspected to be inaccurate that reads inaccurately is a true negative. Other variations produce covert failures or false alarms. Balance between false alarms and covert failures is the key in flow meter calibration.

The perfect flow meter — zero calibrations, zero proving, no zeroing and zero worries with powerful diagnostics that can verify meter accuracy and give advance warning of changes — does not yet exist. Coriolis may arguably be the closest technology
because it is largely insensitive to fluid properties. It is predicted that within 10 years, on-board meter verification diagnostics will be a standard expectation in Coriolis technology.

Click here for the full article by Tom O’Banion.

Effects of Air Pockets in Pump Piping System

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Vitalii Prokopiv

It is essential to have air- release valves when designing a system piping. As air pockets accumulate in a system, the air -release valves will vent the pockets. According to an article by Hydraulic Institute, “If the pipeline is fairly flat and the inside surface of the pipe is very rough, or if the pipeline slopes downward, the fluid velocity may not be sufficient to keep the bubbles moving”. This can cause pockets of air to form at the high points and will begin to effect the liquid flow areas.

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