Getting the Best Measurement From Your

Turbine Meters

PAUL W. TANG, M.Sc., P.Eng.

TERASEN GAS
SURREY, BC, CANADA

Introduction

Many factors influence the quality of turbine meter flow

measurement. Recognizing these factors allows a user to rotational speed occurs due to the development of a
optimize the flow measurement performance of a turbine retarding torque at the rotor. This retarding torque is
metering system. In order to ensure that turbine meters in composed of the following two components:
the field are operating at their best, turbine metering
stations must be properly designed, calibrated, installed, a. Non-fluid forces (mechanical friction)
and maintained on a regular basis. This paper explains the b. Fluid forces (fluid friction)
physical processes that affect the accuracy of turbine
metering systems, and suggests methods to maintain these The non-fluid retarding forces are introduced by the
systems at optimal performance. friction of rotor bearings and the mechanical loading of the
drive train in the flow indicating registers. The fluid
How Turbine Meters Work retarding forces are made up of fluid drag which is a
function of the Reynolds number of the flow, and
Turbine gas meters are inferential meters. They measure turbulence which is a function of the flow velocity. The
gas flow volume indirectly by counting the number of rotor individual and combined contribution of these factors to
revolutions when exposed to a gas flow. A gas turbine the overall performance of a turbine is shown in Figure 2.
meter is essentially a machine that converts the kinetic
energy of a moving gas into rotational energy as shown in
Figure 1. In an idealized situation, the rotational speed of a
gas turbine meter should be exactly proportional to the
volumetric flow rate of the flowing medium.

Rotation

Figure 2 Effect of fluid and non-fluid retarding

where KE is the kinetic energy of the moving fluid torques on gas turbine meter performance (Source:
molecules
M is the mass of the fluid molecules
Sensus Metering Systems)
V is the velocity of the fluid molecules
Performance of Turbine Metering System
Figure 1 Kinetic energy of a flowing fluid
Turbine meters are velocity measuring devices. They rely
The real performance of a turbine gas meter is far from on subjecting their rotors to a properly defined flow profile
ideal. It is affected by several additional factors that in order to make accurate flow measurements. For this
complicate the process. The rotational speed of the rotor in reason, careful consideration must be given to the design of
the turbine meter is roughly proportional to the volumetric the piping immediately upstream and downstream of the
flow rate of the flowing fluid. However, a slippage of the meters. It is important to eliminate situations that may
cause distortion to a well formed flow profile. A great deal

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of research has been done in the past to define the plates perforated with special patterns designed to isolate
minimum piping configuration for turbine metering the flow in order to form an optimal profile for the meter.
stations. In North America, the AGA Report No. 7 [1]
provides guidance for the design of metering stations for
various types of turbine meters under different field
conditions. Measurement Canada requires turbine meters to
be type approved and metering stations to follow piping
configurations recommended by meter manufacturers.
Following these guidelines greatly reduces the risk of flow
measurement errors caused by flow profile [2] related
problems.

The most common types of flow profile distortion are

swirling and jetting brought on by placing a meter in close
proximity to control valves or reducer fittings, and/or
improper placement distance of elbows along a meter run.
Given sufficient pipe length upstream and downstream of a
turbine meter, these types of disturbance will settle down,
Figure 4 Tube bundle and flow conditioning plate
and the flow will return to its normal well developed
profile in due course. Unfortunately, most metering stations
do not have the luxury of ample space and long meter runs. Conditioning plates are very effective in eliminating
Many metering stations were designed only to meet the swirling and jetting. However, they have the unfortunate
minimum pipe length requirements. It is therefore essential side effect of introducing more pressure loss than the tube
to pay bundles. Several manufacturers have incorporated the
design of a flow conditioner in their meters resulting in
products that can be used in close-coupled installations
where space is at a premium.

While swirl and jetting problems are typically created in

the vicinity of a turbine meter, measurement errors caused
by pulsating flow may originate some distance from a
meter. Pulsating flow is longitudinal waves caused by
unsteady flow conditions, the presence of reciprocating
compressors, or unstable pressure regulators upstream or
downstream along the pipeline. Well designed turbine gas
meters use good bearings to minimize mechanical friction.
They also need a rugged rotor body to withstand the stress
exerted by the force of the moving gas. Unfortunately, the
same physical attributes that make a good turbine meter
also cause it to display an asymmetrical transient response
Figure 3 Flow profiles at various Reynolds numbers characteristic to a flow. A turbine meter can respond
quickly and track an accelerating flow very well. However,
attention to the auxiliary equipment used to mitigate flow the same meter typically will not be able to slow down as
profile distortion problems. The conventional flow profile fast when the flow is quickly reduced or interrupted. Figure
correcting device is a 19-tube bundle straightening vane 5 illustrates a turbine meter’s response when it was
inserted several pipe diameters upstream of a turbine meter. exposed to a pulsating flow. While the meter could
Tube bundles are effective at removing swirl conditions correctly capture the flow measurement on the rising
[3], however they have the tendency to freeze the velocity portion of a sinusoidal flow curve, it failed to track the
profile of a flow. Experimental results have shown that flow on the trailing portion when the flow was slowing
tube bundles are not particularly effective in removing down. This resulted in the total flow volume for the
jetting flow problems. A different type of flow measuring duration being overestimated. The transient
conditioning device is the conditioning plate. These are response characteristic of turbine gas meters varies

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depending on their sizes. The time scale shown in Figure 5 lack of maintenance can cause a turbine meter to slow
is typical for a turbine meter of 8-inch diameter or less. down substantially, and eventually burn out the bearings.
Larger turbine meters would have a
The spin test is a very effective way of determining the
health status of a turbine meter module. Most well designed
turbine meters have a consistent spin time that is repeatable
within a few seconds out of several hundreds. Comparing
field spin time with factory provided figures provides a
good estimate about the condition of a meter. A shorter
than expected spin time for a turbine meter module is
typically a warning sign for potential bearing problems and
would cause the meter to run with reduced rangeability.
Failed spin time tests may also indicate a mechanical
problem within the drive train mechanism of the top plate.
Figure 5 Intermittent flow response of turbine meter In most cases, a change in spin time is also a signature for
indicating a change in the meter’s calibration. A spin time
test can be performed either on a bench or in situ. The
longer time constant. Flow pulsation can be reduced to a detailed procedure for performing a spin test can be found
certain extent by deploying surge filtering devices to in most turbine meter manufacturers’ maintenance
minimize flow measurement error. However, such filtering manuals.
devices are expensive and their presence adds unnecessary
complexity to a metering station. It would be more One of the often overlooked sources of turbine meter
desirable to identify pulsation flow problems in advance measurement errors is the flow path within the meter.
and avoid the placement of a turbine metering station at Operating with a changed meter body or a damaged flow
such locations. conditioning element will alter the fluid dynamic
characteristic of the meter. For example, even minute
Many internal factors influence the accuracy of a turbine damage or deformation on the nose cone flow straightening
meter. A turbine meter is a piece of precision element can caused an unacceptably large error. Figure 7
instrumentation. A well built, well calibrated, and well shows the nose cone of a turbine meter with a small corner
maintained turbine meter is capable of measuring flow of one of the straightening fins broken off. Laboratory test
volume with less than ±0.25% error. A common field results revealed that this meter had shifted by nearly 2%
from its original calibration. This example demonstrates the
importance of keeping the flow channel of a turbine meter
clean and free of debris or damage.

Figure 7 Laboratory tests showed that small damage

on the nose cone resulted in a measurement error of
Figure 6 Impact of bearing damage on turbine meter
nearly 2%
problem experienced by turbine meters can be attributed to
dried out or damaged bearings. The bearings in a turbine Conventional turbine meters have only one single rotor.
meter must be oiled regularly according the manufacturer’s The dual rotor turbine meters were developed much later
recommendation. Excessive mechanical drag due to dirt or by some manufacturers to address some of the turbine
meter error problems discussed earlier. The secondary rotor

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is typically used for checking the measurement integrity of flow rates and high pressures, i.e. high Reynolds number,
the primary rotor. In certain more advanced products of this the non-fluid drag component of the retarding torque
category, the output of the secondary rotor is used to make diminishes, and the meter responds strictly to the Reynolds
automatic adjustment to the output of the primary rotor to number of the flow. Hence the error curve of the meter
nullify or reduce the effect of some of the error becomes much more linear and predictable.
contributing factors discussed in the previous paragraphs
[4]. This type of turbine meter has been shown to be A turbine meter performance curve is expressed in terms of
effective in preserving measurement accuracy under hostile its metering errors versus the corresponding volumetric
application environments. To demonstrate this fact, the flow rates. In order to characterize the error performance of
damaged nose cone previously shown in Figure 7 was a turbine meter at different pressures or in different fluids,
installed in a dual rotor turbine meter and recalibrated at a family of curves would be necessary. An example is
the same facility. The adjusted flow measurement error was given in Figure 9. In this example, an 8-inch turbine meter
found to be reduced to less than 0.5%. This magnitude of was first calibrated in air at atmospheric pressure. The
measurement improvement seemed to substantiate the meter was then calibrated again in carbon dioxide gas at
manufacturer’s claim about the product’s immunity to both 40 psia and 134 psia. A set of three error curves was
aerodynamic disturbance. produced. Each one of these three curves has very distinct
and different attributes. Given this set of curves, one would
Secondary Parameters not be able to quickly visualize the physical relationship

Since nearly all gas flow measurements are not made under
standard conditions, secondary parameters must be used to
convert the subject flow to standard volume flow. The
computation of standard volume flow requires the
application of the Gas Laws and the Equation of State [5].
The Gas Laws expresse the relationship between volume,
temperature, and pressure of a gas. The Equation of State
describes the physical state of the gas under a given set of
temperature and pressure conditions and a known
composition. The Equation of State is typically used to
calculate the density and compressibility of the gas
medium. The accuracy of temperature and pressure
measurements has direct bearing in the accuracy of flow
Figure 8 Turbine meter error vs Reynolds number
measurement calculations. The measurement of
temperature and pressure at a turbine meter run must be
taken with due care. The installation specification section between these curves. Furthermore, it is quite evident from
of the AGA Report No. 7 [1] provides good guidelines for Figure 9 that any one of the three calibration curves does
the placement of the temperature well and pressure tap on a not represent the behavior of the meter operating under the
turbine meter run. other two sets of conditions. In this example, most of the
error differences did not exceed 1% when the operating
Pressure Effect on Turbine Meters environment was changed. However, research work
published by AGA and also by the Gas Research Institute
The pressure dependency of a turbine meter is a well [6,7, and 8] reported that metering errors of this magnitude
known phenomenon. Figure 8 shows a series of typical or higher are not uncommon, and accurate turbine meter
turbine meter errors versus Reynolds numbers plotted at calibrations can only be obtained when a calibration
three different operating pressures. Both atmospheric air program is tailored to a specific flow regime. The latest
and pressurized natural gas were used in this example in revision of the AGA Report No. 7 [1] suggests that “a
order to span a wider Reynolds number range. This meter calibration carried out in a test facility over a
example shows that the flow rate and operating pressure particular range of Reynolds numbers characterizes the
has significant effects on the accuracy of a turbine meter. meter’s performance when used to measure gas over the
At low flow rates and low operating pressures, i.e. low same range of Reynolds numbers when the meter is in
Reynolds number, the non-fluid force has a dominant service”. It also further recommends that “the expected
influence on the error performance of the meter. At high operating Reynolds number range and/or density for a

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meter needs to be taken into account when designing a purchased. An atmospheric air calibration is easy and
calibration program”. inexpensive to performance, but the data is only applicable
for a flow range with low Reynolds numbers. Very few
turbine meters in the natural gas industry operate at such a
low Reynolds number range. As demonstrated in Figure 9,
using atmospheric air calibration factors in high pressure
natural gas applications runs the risk of making excessive
measurement errors. Simple calculation shows that a 0.5%
measurement error for a 12-inch turbine meter operating at
500 psig may cost a gas company or its customers several
million dollars in a six year calibration cycle [9].
Specifying the proper calibration for a turbine meter
application eliminates one of the main sources of flow
measurement error.

Natural gas and atmospheric air are by no means the only

gas media for testing turbine meters. In the last few years,
carbon dioxide gas has been used successfully in flowmeter
Figure 9 Line pressure effect on a turbine meter proving loops [1, 9]. Calibrating turbine meters in carbon
dioxide gas has many advantages. Carbon dioxide is non-
To view the turbine meter test result from a different
perspective, the data points in Figure 9 were consolidated
and the error curves redrawn and plotted against Reynolds
number in one single line. The performance curve thus
obtained showed a new level of elegance and simplicity.
The shape of the new curve shown in Figure 10 looked
very much like the theoretic curve expressed in Figure 8.
Observed carefully, it also became apparent that the data
points with overlapping Reynolds numbers exhibited the
same error characteristics, thus confirming the validity of
the AGA 7 recommendations.

Calibration of Turbine Meters

Proper calibration is the key for ensuring good

measurement accuracy for a turbine meter. Calibration is a
process of comparing one measurement device with Figure 10 Calibration curve in Reynolds number
another of known correctness. This process either validates
or provides correction for the device under test based on combustible and much safer to handle than natural gas in a
the comparative result with the device of known test facility. It can be compressed and circulated in a test
correctness. The device of known correctness is referred to loop to generate high Reynolds number flow. Experimental
as a calibration standard. Calibrations of turbine meters results have shown that calibrations of turbine meters at a
intended for natural gas applications are typically carried carbon dioxide test facility were indistinguishable from
out in natural gas test facilities. Natural gas based meter those calibrated at a high pressure natural gas test facility
calibration facilities capable of operating over a wide [10].
pressure and temperature range are difficult and costly to
build. Calibrating natural gas turbine meters with alternate Since calibration is so important to flow measurement
gas is also an acceptable practice. For example, calibration accuracy, many regulatory agencies and professional
of turbine meters in atmospheric pressure air is recognized organizations have recommendations for good gas turbine
by most regulatory agencies in the world as a valid meter calibration practices. The International Organization
procedure. Most turbine meter manufacturers provide an of Legal Metrology (OIML) R137-1-2006 document [11]
atmospheric air calibration certificate when a meter is

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recommends that turbine meters be calibrated at or close to [6] George, D. L., GRI Topical Report GRI-01-0226,
their operating conditions. In Europe, the European “Metering Research Facility Program: Turbine Meter
Committee for Standardization (CEN) EN12260-2002 [12] Research in Support of the Planned AGA Report No. 7
specifies that turbine meters operating at or below 60 psig Revision” Gas Research Institute, Des Plaines, Illinois,
(4 bar) may be calibrated at atmospheric pressure, while January 2003.
turbine meters operating beyond 60 psig must be calibrated
[7] George, D. L., GRI Topical Report GRI-03-0050,
close to their field conditions. The American Gas
“Metering Research Facility Program: Effects of Line
Association (AGA) has similar recommendations that have
Pressure and Gas Density on Turbine Meter Measurement
been discussed in a previous section of this paper. While
Accuracy Between 30 and 700 psig in Natural Gas”. Gas
Measurement Canada does not require turbine meters to be
Research Institute, Des Plaines, Illinois, July 2003.
calibrated at their operating pressures at this time, it has
previously stated on a number of occasions its intention to [8] George, D. L., GRI Topical Report GRI-03-0172,
mandate the requirement to calibrate turbine meters at a “Metering Research Facility Program: Effects of Line
pressure that is commensurate with their intended use. Pressure and Gas Density on Turbine Meter Measurement
Accuracy at Conditions from Atmospheric Air to 700 psig
Conclusion in Natural Gas”. Gas Research Institute, Des Plaines,
Illinois, August 2004.
Turbine meters have been a workhorse of the natural gas
[9] Tang, P.W., “Improving Turbine Meter Measurement
measurement industry for more than fifty years. They have
by Alternate Fluid Calibration”, Canadian School of
been proven to be easy to use, reliable, rugged, and
Hydrocarbon Measurement, Calgary, Alberta, March 2007.
accurate. In order to get the best performance out of a
turbine meter installation, it is necessary to pay attention to [10] George, D.L., Fraser, H.L., Nored, M., Tang,
certain design and operational details. This paper briefly P.W.,”Carbon Dioxide as a Test Fluid for Calibration of
highlights some of the factors that influence the error Turbine Meters”, American Gas Association, Operations
performance of a turbine meter installation. Observing the Conference 2004, Phoenix, Arizona, May 2004.
recommendations presented in this paper will help a turbine
[11] International Organization of Legal Metrology
meter user to achieve and maintain a high level of flow
(OIML), “R137-1 International Recommendation – Gas
measurement accuracy.
Meters Part 1: Requirements, Section 7.5.5”, Edition 2006
(E).
[12] European Committee for Standardization (CEN),
REFERENCES “EN12261 Gas Meters – Turbine Gas Meters, section
5.2.1.2 - Test”, 2002(E).
[1] A.G.A. Transmission Measurement Committee Report
No. 7, “Measurement of Natural Gas by Turbine Meters”,
American Gas Association, Washington, D.C., April 2006.
[2] Miller, R.W., “Flow Measurement Engineering
Handbook”, McGraw-Hill Book Company, March 1996.
[3] Mattingley G. E. and T. T., Yeh,' Effects of pipe elbows
and tube bundle on selected types of flow-meters', Flow
Meas. Instrum., 2, pp. 4-13, 1991.

[4] Honchar, P.G.,' Fundamentals of Turbine Meters',

Sensus Metering Systems, Canadian Gas Association - Gas
Measurement School, Ottawa, 2007.

[5] Reid R.C, Prausnitz J.M, Sherwood T.K.,”The

Properties of Gases and Liquids”, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1977.

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