Multiphysics Simulations of Flow Meters

12/10/2016

Products Solutions Services

COMSOL CONFERENCE 2016 MUNICH

Dr. Vivek Kumar

Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG

Multiphysics Simulations of Flow Meters

Slide 1

12/10/2016

Outline of the Talk

Introduction Endress+Hauser

Flowtec AG

Role of Numerical Simulations

Selected COMSOL Simulation Projects

Coriolis flow meter

Ultrasonic flow meter

Design optimization

process

Conclusion


Slide 2

12/10/2016

Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG

• Established in 1977

• Flowtec 1600 and E+H group over 12000 employees

• Headquarters in Reinach, Switzerland

• Development and production of Coriolis, Vortex,

Ultrasonic, Electromagnetic and Thermal mass flow

instruments

Reinach

SuzhouAurangabad

Cernay Greenwood

Itatiba


Slide 3

12/10/2016

Unit Sales Development

1977 1985 1990 1992 1995 1998 2003 2005 2008 2010 2011 2012 2013

Continuous growth since 1977

Coriolis

UltrasonicThermal

Vortex

Electromagnetic

According to sales by end of

2013


Slide 4

12/10/2016

Product Portfolio Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG

Industrial flow meters

• Line size 1 mm to 2.4 m

• Broad application range

• Precision up to ±0.05%


Slide 5

12/10/2016

Our Goal and Vision

Concept

Multiphysics modelling

•Flow-structure, Flow-acoustics, Flow-magnetic field ..

Design exploration

•Sensitivity, optimization and robustness studies

Prototype

Flow

Thermal

Ultrasonic

(acoustics)

Coriolis

(structure)

MID

Maxwell

Vortex


• Multiphysics modeling

• Automated workflows

• Design optimization

Five measuring principles

Slide 6

12/10/2016

Our Model

• All three must be consolidated to design outstanding and innovative products

PeopleTraining,

support,

communities,

internal Wikis

SoftwareMethod

development,

evaluation,

Support

HardwareWorkstation,

servers, HPC

cluster and

Clouds

Numerical Simulations


Democratization of numerical simulations

Numerical simulations is not just the software

Slide 7

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Role of Simulations

Simulations

Quality Productivity Manpower Innovation


Slide 8

12/10/2016

Coriolis Flow Meter – Measuring Principle

fR ~

~ Qm

fRQ

m

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYniN5WQjI


Slide 9

• Direct mass flow measurement

• Additional measurements: density and

viscosity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxYniN5WQjI

12/10/2016

Flow Structural deformation Acoustics

Coriolis Flow Meter – 3D Multiphysics Simulation

Complete modeling of a Coriolis flow meter requires Multiphysics interaction


• Effects are around 0.1 to 1%

• Efficient and precise methods requiredChallenges:

Slide 10

12/10/2016

Coriolis Flow Meter – Frequency Domain Analysis

• FSI in frequency domain

• First implemented using weak form ( 2012 V4.3)

• Available as predefined physics interface (V4.4) Flow Field

Linearized Euler: vibro-acoustics in frequency domain

Linearized N-S: vibro-visco-acoustics in frequency domain

Meter response


Slide 11

12/10/2016

Coriolis Flow Meter – Frequency Response and Damping

• Effect of viscosity on the frequency could be corrected with the help of simulations

• Viscosity can be measured with information on damping and phase

• This effect could only be solved in COMSOL

1

10

100

1 000

208.6 208.7 208.8 208.9

Dis

pla

cem

en

t (m

m)

Frequency (Hz)

Amplitude

viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.001viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.05viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.2viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.7viscosity (Pa*s) = 1viscosity (Pa*s) = 2viscosity (Pa*s) = 5viscosity (Pa*s) = 10

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

208.6 208.7 208.8 208.9

Ph

ase(°

)

Frequency (Hz)

Phase

viscosity (Pa*s) =0.001viscosity (Pa*s) =0.05viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.2

viscosity (Pa*s) = 0.7


Slide 12

12/10/2016

Coriolis Flow Meter – Frequency Domain Methods

Meter sensing a flow effect

Frequency DomainSolver

Experiments

Me

ter

resp

on

se

Flow variation -->

Effects due to changes in flow conditions : time vs frequency domain

COMSOL offers frequency domain methods

• A unique feature of COMSOL in multiphysics

context

• Flow, acoustics and structure interaction

• much faster than time-domain methods


COMSOL

Experiments

Order of effect 10−3

Slide 13

12/10/2016

Flow Induced Noise: Time to Frequency Domain (Mixed method)

Transient flow and frequency domain acoustic analysis

Surface

Pressure FFT

Flow induced noise

sources

DES/LES Simulations

COMSOL

Vibroacoustics

Flow induced

noise around the

meter


Slide 14

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter


Slide 15

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Measuring Principle

• Based on time-of-flight (TOF) method

• t12=𝐿

𝑐+𝑢∗𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃< t21=

𝐿

𝑐−𝑢∗𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃because of flow velocity

L

u

Ultrasonic sensor

Ultrasonic

sensor

Sound

Path

1.

2.

θc: speed of sound

D

Ultrasonic wave is sent from 1. to 2. and from 2. to

1.

• Flow velocity: V =𝐷

sin(2𝜃)∙

Δt

𝑡21∙𝑡12

where Δt = t21 – t12


Slide 16

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – 3D FEM Multiphysics Simulations

Challenges

small wave lengths

at least 6-8 mesh elements per

wavelength (2nd order)

100 Million mesh elements or DOFs

Large computing resources

especially RAM

Flow and Piezoelectric coupling with

acoustics


Slide 17

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – Convected Wave Equation

Background flow using CFD

CWE: manually implemented in v5.2 using weak form

•Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method

•4th order spatial and temporal discretization

•Explicit time marching scheme

New interface Convected Wave Equation, Time Explicit released in v5.2a

𝑝0, 𝑣0 and 𝜌0 are the background flow quantities


Slide 18

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – COMSOL CWE Solution (v5.2)

Transmitter

Signal

Background

Flow (50m/s)

Receiver

50 Million DoFs

380k Elements


Slide 19

12/10/2016

Ultrasonic Flow Meter – COMSOL Solution Time of Flight

• TOFs from up- and downstream signals agree well with theoretical estimation

• For mesh resolution at 𝜆/1.5 – nearly no numerical dispersion observed

Theory


Slide 20

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Optimization


Slide 21

12/10/2016

Optimization in Product Development

COMSOL server (Live Link for MATLAB)

FEM parametrized model

MATLAB

COMSOL model as MATLAB script(APIs)

COMSOL server

optiSLang

Optimization Algorithm

Sending

Parameter to

MATLAB

Sending results

to optiSLang

MATLAB starts

COMSOL server

in background

COMSOL

Results


Slide 22

12/10/2016

Direct Link to COMSOL

• A direct link to COMSOL using JAVA APIs is developed

parameter


Slide 23

12/10/2016

Conclusion

COMSOL is indeed a true Multiphysics simulation program •Solution of thermal and flow problems in frequency and time domain

•coupling of flow with acoustics and structure

It helps to optimize our flow sensors

Allows us to address problems which otherwise were not possible to solve

COMSOL development speed is outstanding and takes care of our needs•Linearized Navier-Stokes in frequency domain

•CWE acoustic solver for coupling flow with acoustics


Slide 24

12/10/2016

Acknowledgments

• Coriolis and Ultrasonic teamsE+H Flowtec

• Mads J. Herring Jensen, Zoran Vidakovic

COMSOL Multiphysics


Slide 25

12/10/2016


Thank you!

Slide 26

Documents

Multiphysics Simulations of Flow Meters