How do we know our flow conditioners give the best performance for your flow conditioning needs?
We designed our flow conditioners from the ground up, based on fluid dynamic principles, flow profile generation, swirl elimination, Reynolds number performance, and pressure drop. Thousands of hours have been (and continue to be) spent in labs around the world and using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to verify their performance. Furthermore, we have spent over twenty years performing real-world testing, research, and data collection. From these results, we continue to make modifications to performance on our current portfolio of flow conditioners (and we continue to innovate!).
CPA flow conditioners work by creating an ideal state of flow – fully developed flow profile with nearly zero swirl. It was a balancing act to optimize this design, because designing the flow conditioner entirely for swirl removal handicaps the flow profile performance, and designing for perfect flow profile repair results in an extremely large pressure drop and turbulence generation. CPA flow conditioners are designed to provide the best of all worlds.
Our flow conditioners have been extensively tested and evaluated by independent laboratories and are proven to be superior for stabilizing performance downstream – even in the most demanding situations. Flow profile development, swirl elimination, pressure drop performance, turbulence, and noise generation are all extensively studied across many different fluids and different meter technologies. This means you get accurate measurements every time, no matter if it’s air, natural gas, water, oil, liquid petroleum, or any other fluid application.
This performance allows CPA flow conditioners to be an effective choice for any volumetric flow meter: orifice, ultrasonic, turbine, venturi, cone, etc. Volumetric flow meters require optimal fluid flow to maximize performance (i.e. fully developed flow with minimal swirl), and the flow conditioner is simply providing this to the meter. In some cases, like with orifice measurement, it can more difficult and expensive to achieve custody transfer performance without the flow conditioner, whereas in the case of ultrasonic meters, use of the flow conditioner can reduce path error by up to 90%!
CPA offers 4 flow conditioner designs – the TBR/TBRL, 50E, 55E, and 65E. The TBR/TBRL is designed for economical gas orifice applications where a pinned tube bundle would typically be used instead. The TBR/TBRL provides superior performance with a much shorter meter tube. The 50E is the most tested flow conditioner in the industry. It is also supported by more than 20 years of test data by independent flow laboratories and is recommended for gases, liquids and any volumetric flow meter. The 55E is a upgrade upon the 50E, providing higher swirl removal, lower noise and turbulence generation, and can be used in even shorter meter tube designs. The CPA 65E is CPA’s lower pressure drop model, optimized for liquids but still providing superior performance in gas applications where pressure losses are critical. CPA recommends the 65E for liquid turbine and ultrasonic applications. The 65E offers some of the highest pressure recovery performance in the industry, greater than tube bundles in many liquid applications.
Flow conditioners ensure high-performance and error-free measurement for any flow measurement scenario. CPA’s flow conditioners are proven to provide a fully developed, swirl-free profile required for reliable and repeatable measurement. Our experts are ready to discuss how CPA’s flow conditioners can improve your measurement accuracy. Call us now for more information at 403-236-4480.
