Evaluation of four fast-response flow measurement devices

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5361867· OSTI ID:5361867

Gero, A. J.; Suppers, K. L.; Tomb, T. F.

The Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 requires that sampling of dust in coal mine environments be conducted with an approved sampler operating at a flow rate of 2.0 liters of air per minute or at such other flow rate as prescribed by the Secretaries of Labor and of Health and Human Services. Standard procedures for calibration of these samplers within the Mine Safety and Health Administration utilize either a 3.0 liter capacity wet test meter or a 1.0 liter soap film calibrator. Several new flow calibrating devices have become commercially available. This paper describes an evaluation conducted on four such devices: the Mast Model 823-2 bubble flowmeter, the Buck Calibrator, the Kurz Model 541S mass flowmeter and the Kurz Pocket Calibrator. The precision of a series of measurements made with each instrument was compared to the precision of a series of measurements made with the wet test meter. The comparison showed that the variability of calibration measurements obtained with the fast response flow calibrators was between 1.5 and 4.5 times larger than that obtained with the WTM; however, with all of the calibration devices evaluated, three repetitive measurements were sufficient to obtain a precision of {plus minus}0.1 liters per minute. 4 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Mine Safety and Health Administration, Denver, CO (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOL
• OSTI ID: 5361867
• Report Number(s): MSHA/IR-1163; ON: DE90003743
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012034 -- Coal
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& Peat-- Underground Mining-- Automation
Monitoring
& Control-- (1987-)
440800* -- Miscellaneous Instrumentation-- (1990-)
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
CALIBRATION
COAL MINING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA COVARIANCES
DUSTS
FLOW RATE
FLUID FLOW
HAZARDS
HEALTH HAZARDS
HUMIDITY
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MEASURING METHODS
MINING
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY
PRESSURE EFFECTS
SAFETY
STANDARDS
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
VACUUM STATES