Flow Rate Automatic Calibration System Development And Its Application

Flow meter calibration device for the volume control in the crude oil pipeline industry during the transition,flow measurement accuracy is a critical parameter. The standard equipment of the flow meter is a prover. The effective error of the prover has direct influences on the metering loss of the flow meter. The China-Korea oil pipeline is a cross-country oil transportation line, and the work of crude oil measurement is very crucial to the economic and the political benefits of the two countries. The prover flow rate calibration system before the transformation is mainly calibrated by the manual operation, that the calibration precision is low and there is much abrasion on the equipment. Therefore, to make research on the reliable, accurate prover flow rate automatic calibration system will offer much support for the crude oil measurement between China and the North Korea, and it is very important for the trade measurement of the two countries.This paper analyzes the work principle of the prover flow rate automatic calibration system and makes out the design of the automatic flowmeter calibration system which takes the PLC as the core. It uses the SCADA system, the Citect Real-time monitoring system programming and configuration software, and the RSLogix500software package to make out the system software. It uses the advanced industry control software and hardware equipment. Through these methods, the automation, real-time implementation and intelligentization of the flow meter system can be realized, therefore, the accuracy, rapidity, reliability and capacity of resisting disturbance of the measurement has been improved greatly.Through designs, experiments, improvements and motions, the prover flow rate automatic calibration system has been an organic whole of high precision and intelligentization. It will automatically collect and save the signals according to the pre-planned process under the control of the software and get out the calibration conclusion through comparing and operating the signals under checking and the standard signal.After applying the prover flow rate automatic calibration system in the lines between China and the North Korea, the measurement efficiency has been increased;the precision of the flowmeter has been improved0.11%; the loss of the crude oil measurement per year has decreased570tons, and it has created the profits of2.36million yuan. The investment of the prover flow rate automatic calibration system is2.15million yuan, and in one year it will get back the system investments.The flow rate automatic calibration system under the exploitation and application has stable performance, high precision, simple operation, and high performance price ratio. Under the operation of nearly one year, every technical target has reached the requirements of the flowmeter checking and the measurement management between China and the North Korea has been improved.