Measurement of Mass Flow Rate by Employing Thermometry
Sudden changes of flow temperature along a tube are common in industrial applications. One may suggest those changes can be related to the flow rate. The current work presents a feasibility analysis to evaluate the mass flow rate by measuring changes of temperature at two positions along a tube wall separated by a known distance. The ratio of the distance and the time to change the temperature at the two points may be related to the average flow speed. This is a convection-conduction heat transfer phenomenon at the flow and tube wall. This conjugated heat transfer is modeled by the energy conservation equation that is solved numerically. The study identifies the ranges of parameters, such as, Reynolds and Biot numbers, wall thickness, etc., on which the technique can be applied. The model results are compared to an analytical solution and preliminary experimental results.