Jed,
Do you know the orientation of the flow meter? It is only
possible to have a pipe half full if the flow meter is mounted
horizontally (a mistake for use of this type of flow meter).
That problem could have been totally eliminated if the flow meter
were oriented vertically.
An observation (agreeing with yours) is that turbine type flow
measurements are really measurements of the flow speed of the
medium (water). The flow meter presumes a full pipe in
calculation of the volumetric flow rate. The turbine blade is
meant to turn with the smallest possible friction so as to create
as to minimize flow resistance. If the flow meter was mounted
horizontally, and the pipe was half full, the turbine would turn
at the speed of the water (same as if it were full) - since a
full pipe was presumed in the indication of rate, it would be in
error by the volumetric difference between the pipe full volume
and the pipe partly filled volume.
On Mon, Aug 8, 2016 at 7:51 AM, Jed Rothwell
<[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
I wrote:
Look at Exhibit 5, and also look at what Rossi told
Lewan. The temperature is just over 100°C and the flow
rate is 36,000 kg per day. The pressure is 0 bar. It is
the same every day, including days when the reactor was
shut down, according to Exhibit 5.
If you assume there was actually some pressure, then
there was only hot water, not steam, where the
temperature went from 60°C to 100°C. Assume there was 20
kW of input power. That's 20,000 J/s = 4,780 cal. . . .
Let me revise this using the numbers from Exhibit 5. Exhibit
5 shows the water reservoir was 68.7°C and the fluid was
102.8°C, a temperature difference of 34.1°C.
As described in Exhibit 5, the pressure of 0.0 bar is
unlikely because it would mean the reactor room is in a
vacuum. "Given the foregoing, this would require that the
pressure on the JMP side of the building was significantly
below atmospheric (vacuum) and that the steam would flow at
extraordinary velocity."
Let me assume the pressure was a little higher than 1 atm.
That means the fluid was pressurized and it was probably not
steam. It was probably hot water. Assume it was hot water and
the temperature increased by 34.1°C. Input power was 20,000
J/s = 4,780 cal. Divide by 34.1°C gives a flow rate of 140
g/s. That's 8.41 kg/minute or 12,111 kg/day. The flow meter
indicated 36,000 kg/day, so I estimate it was wrong by a
factor of ~3.
As I said, that is not a surprising error, given that the
pipe was half full and it was the wrong kind of flow meter.
- Jed
