Development Of A Digital Performance Tester For Gas Regulator

Gas regulator is a very important equipment in the process of gas transportation,it plays a role to adjust the high gas pressure to a low level,which aims to be used for the downstream users.The stability of the gas supply serves as an important premise to ensure the safety of the gas used by the customers,so the factory performance test of gas regulator is indispensable.The performance test of the gas regulator mainly includes tightness,static characteristics and regulating performance.At present,the testing of gas regulators in China relies on the traditional instruments and apparatus and manual test which are largely affected by human factors and also lead to low efficiency and accuracy.Therefore,the testing process is remarkably low in digital level.Based on the above information,this paper has developed and manufactured a Digital Performance Testing Platform according to theoretical calculation and field test of the regulator testing requirements.Firstly,this paper elaborates the operating principle and classification of gas regulator and states the importance of gas transportation.According to the national standards of gas regulator and the actual test requirements,it also formulates the testing details.Secondly,we have built a mathematical model which applies bubble method and pressure drop method to test the tightness of the regulator,and have chosen the differential-pressure method to test the tightness because of the low accuracy of bubble method and the low efficiency of pressure drop method after being compared with national standards.Then,we analyzed the temperature,test pressure,volume and other factors on the sealing test in the differential pressure method.Thirdly,we have designed a Digital Performance Testing Platform to solve problems.We use Three-dimensional modeling to complete the structural design,we apply PLC electronic control system to monitor the testing process and collect the information.The test software of this platform is developed on the basis of the force control configuration software which made automatic test,human-machine interaction,automatic generation and storage of test report come true.Finally,combined with theoretical analysis and experiment,we have corrected the stabilizing time in different pressure levels.Besides,we have proved the efficiency and accuracy of the testing platform through comparing the automatic testing and manual testing.