RESULTS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN NATURAL GAS FLOW CALIBRATION LABORATORY COMPARISON: CEESI - SwRI - TCC

摘要

The performance of the three commercial laboratories that provide flow meter calibrations to the natural gas industry in North America was evaluated. A tandem flow meter transfer standard package was used and it consisted of commercial flow meters (a turbine and a multi-path ultrasonic) separated by a commercial flow conditioner. Results indicate that the transfer standard package has day-to-day reproducibilities in the 0.37percent level, at a 95percent confidence interval. This level of performance was less than desired given that the calibration laboratories claim uncertainties better than 0.3percent. The results show a consistency in performance among laboratories at the 0.3percent to 0.4percent level, which indicates that the three calibration laboratories have equivalent performances within the scope of their claimed uncertainties. In addition, the results did not pointed out any significant installation effect at any of the laboratories. The results from one of the laboratory capable of variable pipeline pressure were inconclusive in regards to this parameter influence on flow meter performance.