ABSTRACT
The Coriolis mass flowmeter not only allows mass flow to be measured directly but is also readily able to cope with the extremely high densities of for example dough, molasses, asphalt, liquid sulphur, etc.
After addressing the concept of the Coriolis effect, early implementations based on rotating systems are examined in this chapter and then the first practical system based on a vibrating tube system is discussed. Incremental design steps led to a variety of different designs – moving from a 15 mm diameter bent tube design through to single-tube designs of 400 mm or more.
Although the measurement of mass flow is fundamentally independent of the density of the medium, the vibratory action of the oscillating tubes can be harnessed to provide an independent measure of the medium density.
Discussion also centres on other challenges including the measurement of liquids containing entrained gas allowing several manufacturers to handle gas void fractions ranging from 0% to 100%.
