Numerical simulation of transit-time ultrasonic flowmeters: uncertainties due to flow profile and fluid turbulence

Flowmeter measurement using the ultrasonic transit-time method is based on the apparent difference of the sound velocity in the flow direction and in the opposite direction. This method gives a flow velocity averaged along a particular acoustical path. To convert this path velocity to a velocity averaged over the entire cross-section of the flowing medium, the knowledge of the flow velocity profile is essential. However, the acoustical paths joining the two transducers are supposed to be straight and fluid turbulence phenomena are neglected. In this paper, we describe a numerical procedure to estimate the uncertainties due to these approximations in the case of fully developed turbulence. The ultrasonic propagation is modelled in 2-D moving inhomogeneous media via a ray tracing algorithm. Influence of mean profiles of temperature and velocity is studied on simple examples. Fluid temperature fluctuations and fluid velocity turbulence are considered in the stochastic framework to obtain average uncertainties on the measurements of the liquid flow rate.