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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Experiences in the installation, certification, and maintenance of transit-time ultrasonic flow-monitors on utility stacks with high temperature and velocity

Conference ·
OSTI ID:271814
; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. United Sciences, Inc., Gibsonia, PA (United States)
  2. American Electric Power Service Corp., Columbus, OH (United States)
At the completion of its Phase-1 and Phase-2 CEM projects, American Electric power will have installed 60 ultrasonic transit-time flow monitors across its 18 stations. These installations include larger stacks, with faster flow-speeds and higher temperatures, than has been the case in any known prior ultrasonic flow monitor installations anywhere in the world. A number of adaptations to the vendor`s standard product made it possible to operate successfully in this environment. Additional developments, such as fiber-optic interface between stack and ground to reduce lightning damage, were made solely for increased reliability. Certification results to date on the first 30 Phase-1 flow monitors indicate an average absolute Bias Adjustment Factor (BAF) of 1.014 and an average Relative Accuracy (RA) of 2.77%. Out of the installations, the worst three-load average RA result at any site on the initial certification was 8.23%. Fifteen of the units have undergone their annual audit, with average BAF and RA results of 1.021 and 2.46, respectively. Data capture of the flow monitoring systems, on a per-stack basis using redundant monitors, is well in excess of 99.8%. Ongoing collaboration between the user and vendor is geared largely toward tracking and continuously improving reliability and longevity of system components. Special attention is being paid to monitoring the effect, if any, of various levels of maintenance and/or repair on system calibration.
OSTI ID:
271814
Report Number(s):
CONF-950196--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English