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CALIBRATION OF 24 TON WEIGHING SCALE BY CORIOLIS MASS MASTER METER UNCERTAINTY CALCULATION IN LOAD AND IN LOAD DIFFERENCE

Aart Pruysen
  • Abstract:
    At the MicroMotion Flowfacilities (= division of Emerson Process Management) in Veenendaal – the Netherlands, the Coriolis MicroMotion meters are gravimetric calibrated for the European users via the standing start and stop method. These flowfacilities have a “stand uncertainty” (Calibration and Measurement Capability; CMC) of 0.03%.
    The biggest scale of this facility, a 24000 kg scale for flowcapacities up till 660 t / h and based on gyroscopic balance, is calibrated since three years via a Coriolis MicroMotion mass master meter. The reason for this method is that placing 3 times 24 * 1 ton weights on the bottom of the tank is a very timely consuming task (2 days); the master meter method is much shorter in time and should hopefully lead to approximately the same uncertainty as performed with weights.
    The mass master meter method has a longer traceability chain than calibrating with weights so the question was if it is feasible to get again a CMC of 0.03 % at the final end.
    This paper explains the calibration method; latest results (February / March 2003) and, very surprisely, the reasons why the results are better than obtained from calibration with weights.
    This paper includes:
    - Theory of weighing of liquid
    - Introduction of three independent factors for the weighing scale: Weighing scale factor (WSF); Buoyancy Vapour Correction (BVC) and Immersed Pipe Correction (IPC)
    - Determination of the uncertainty of scale in load
    - Determination of the uncertainty of scale in load-difference, based on an agreed calculation method with NMi-VSL (Dutch National Standards institute)
    - Determination of the CMC of a gravimetric flowcalibration facility under operating conditions
    - How to minimise CMC for a special case
    - Results of this performed procedure
    This paper ends with two conclusions:
    - Reason why this master meter method gives a smaller uncertainty in relation to the calibration with weights
    - There is a need for a well defined, written calculation method when a scale is used from one load to another load (load difference). Is currently very dependent of the involved company (authority) for the assessment.
  • Keywords:
  • DOI:
    _unreg_tc9-2003.070

Event details:

  • IMEKO TC:
    TC9
  • Event name:
    FLOMEKO 2003
  • Title:
    11th Conference on Flow Measurement
  • Place:
    Groningen, NETHERLANDS
  • Time:
    12 May 2003 - 14 May 2003