Bob,
If the flow meter was mounted at the bottom outlet of the water tank,
that presumably is outside and therefore a couple of feet lower than the
plant, it would always be full
On 8/8/2016 10:06 AM, Bob Higgins wrote:
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 <jedrothw...@gmail.com
<mailto:jedrothw...@gmail.com>> 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
