Pre-testing of small scale Instrumented Standpipe set up on flow loop

In this section a pre-test phase will be conducted in order to ensure that the flow loop and all relevant instrumentation works according and produces reliable data.

3.4.1 Pump characteristics

How the pump delivers the feed is very decisive for experiments performed in this paper. For this reason is it briefly described in this section. The pump can be regulated from Matlab Simulink via the output control card that sends a direct analog 0 – 10 volt signal to the frequency converter that regulates the pump rate. The screw pump is manufactured by PCM and has a maximum output capacity of 14 m³/hr. This will however induce a higher pressure in the flow loop piping than what it is designed for, so the upper working area of the pump is for operational safety reasons therefore limited to 45% of maximum. Additionally is the lower limit set to 20% of maximum, due to overheating and subsequent release of the pump motor thermal protector when the pump is operated at lower rates. So the pump working range is therefore in the interval between 20% – 45%

of maximum capacity.

Alexander Wang investigated the relationship between pump rate [0 – 1] and mass rate [kg/hr], and found the following linear relationship when the MPD valve is fully open:

(3.4)

This relationship has been used in all calculations depending on pump rate and fluid flow in the flow loop system. This relationship has not been rechecked in this thesis [27].

3.4.2 Inconsistent measurements for DP transmitters

During the testing phase an odd inconsistency in the DP measurements was discovered, the obtained results were significantly different depending on the time of day they were made. To clarify;

measurements made during working hours is consistent with other measurements done in the same period of time other days, however, measurements made at night after normal working hours has a significantly different trend from those made during the day. In the Matlab plots depicted in Figure 3.7 to Figure 3.10 this difference can be observed for two different pump rates; respectively 30%

and 40% of maximum pump rate. All other conditions are the same for these series. It is show that DPhor(DP2) switches from high side to the lower side of DPver (DP1) and the measured values are

58 higher for both DP transmitters when testing is performed after normal working hours. This change is observed for other pump rates as well.

Figure 3.7 - Differential pressures at 30% of maximum pump rate measured during working hours.

Figure 3.8 - Differential pressures at 30% of maximum pump rate measured after working hours.

59

Figure 3.9 - Differential pressures at 40% of maximum pump rate measured during working hours.

Figure 3.10 - Differential pressures at 40% of maximum pump rate measured after working hours.

60 The most immediate explanation for this is electromagnetic interference (EMI) from other electrical equipment used in the hall during work hours. This has previously been highlighted as a problem in the current flow loop location and some measures has already been taken [26, 27].

A comparison of Matlab data series obtained after working hours and during working hours shows that the after working hours data provides a smoother curve and a seemingly less disturbed signal than the ones obtained during work hours, as seen in Figure 3.11. Also, the data series obtained after working hours also displays an almost identical trend to the theoretical pressure loss values, especially if a more conservative roughness factor (ε) for the PVC pipes is applied. The absolute roughness factor for the PVC pipes is not know, but will great certainty lay somewhere between the smooth pipe (ε/D = 0) and the more conservative ε/D = 0,0015 [24]. The theoretical pressure loss is calculated from the equations presented in section 2.7. Each data point in the plot represents an average value for over 6000 measurements. Flow loop hard data given in Table 3.6.

Figure 3.11 - Comparison of Matlab data obtained during and after normal working hours.

0,0

61 Comparison of DP transmitter display readings:

Furthermore is the problem with fluctuating readings in the DP transmitter display, discussed in section 3.3.2, more or less gone. A comparison of the display readings obtained after working hours and during working hours also supports the notion of a less disturbed signal and thus a higher quality of the data obtained after normal working hours.

The box plots in Figure 3.12 and Figure 3.13 provides a visual summary of the display reading data sample statistics. From these plots it can be observed that the range (max – min) of the data series made after working hours is significantly less than for the daytime series. And the inter quartile range, Q75 – Q25, which contains 50% of the data, is for the after working hour data very narrow compared to the daytime data thus indicating a much smaller spread in data. The medians position inside the boxes indicates the skeweness in the distributions; in other words, whether there are more values towards the upper or the lower quartiles, respectively Q75 and Q25. The box plots generally indicate little skeweness in the display readings data, with the exception of the DP 1 display readings at 30% of maximum pump rate during day time. The same trends can be seen for both pump rates. A brief summary of error analysis is given in appendix D – Error analysis.

Figure 3.12 - Box plot comparison of data quality for DP display readings obtained after work hours and during work hours, at 30% of maximum pump rate.