AN AUTOMATION SYSTEM BASED ON LABVIEW TO CONTROL THE TEST OF MECHANICAL FLOW METERS Mechanism to characterize flow measurers

摘要

A mechanical flow meter is a device used mainly to measure and calculates velocity of weater's flow on rivers and open channels. These devices, as the time of use pass trough, suffer mechanical imperfections, that are why it is important to calibrate them twice a year, depending of its time of use. At the Mexican Institute of Water Technology (IMTA in Spanish) was designed and developed a circular water tank for propose of test of these meters. The present paper shows the automation systems designed to control the tests to calibrate these mechanical meters. The system is based on LabVIEW. LabVIEW is a general purpose programming tool with extensive libraries for data acquisition instrument control, data analysis, and data presentation. With this tool and a special hardware interface, it was possible to automate the process to test these meters. The system is called SCM (System of characterization of mechanical meters). SCM control the test of two mechanical meters simultaneously, and has some user's control features that permit the Operator a easy to use human machine interface.