1

Fundamental Principles of Clamp-on

Ultrasonic
Flow Meters

Overview of selection, Installation, Operation and maintenance of clamp-on meters.

Prepared by William E. Frasier Jr.

CEESI Measurement Services
Garner, Iowa

This paper is aimed at ultrasonic natural Clamping on at a flow lab where flow
gas meters that use transit time across rate is known is helpful. In fact, a
the gas pipe as the measurement useful application is clamping on a
variable. Custody transfer meters using custody meter as it is flow calibrated at
sensors wetted with gas are the more a lab and collect clamp-on data at the
familiar meter format. Clamp-on same time. The clamp-on can later be
meters are quite similar. installed in the field setting and
compared to the custody meter to
General identify shifts between the two meter
Clamp-on meters are specified to relationship at the flow lab.
achieve two to three per cent
uncertainty. Manufacturers cannot Meter Basics
control the quality of a given field Both wetted sensor and clamp-on meter
installation and must provide latitude. types send ultrasonic pulses across the
Lab testing has demonstrated most gas stream at an angle to sense the flow
installations perform at an accuracy field. Both use quartz crystal as a sound
level range of 1%. If a reliable impulse source.
installation technique is maintained, the
clamp-on meter will often perform The difference is the mount. The
better than manufacturer standards. clamp-on is outside the pipe and is not
Further the meter control units have exposed to conditions within the pipe.
piecewise linear error correction ,WFDQ¶WEHIRXOHGDVZHWWHGVHQVRUVKDYH
schemes such that they can be adjusted a tendency to do.
to reference flow rates as afforded at a
flow lab. While wetted sensors are fixed at an
angle to the pipe axis, clamp-on meters
Clamp-on repeatability is very precise. rely on physics to establish the angle.
Often the exact flow volume is not as There is a bend of the ultrasonic pulse
important as repeatable data before and as it enters the gas stream caused by the
after an experimental change such as a index of refraction between the steel
meter cleaning. Changes as small as pipe and the gas within the pipe. The
0.1% can be detected. angle across the pipe rather than a
normal square diameter path is
There is a learning curve or experience necessary to develop a component of
effect. New users often have no gas velocity in the transit time. The gas
confidence in the clamp-on technology. velocity makes the transit downstream
Training helps and repeated installation travel faster than simple speed of sound
in known settings aids user confidence. in the gas. Similarly, the gas velocity
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makes transit time longer when the

ultrasonic beam is traveling upstream. There are two types of clamp-on
In fact the ability to send pulses both transducers, Lamb wave and Shear
downstream and upstream cancels out wave. Lamb wave transducers
many gas variables and simplifies gas sometimes called wide beam, are easier
measurement to just measurement of to work with. Refer to Figure 1.
time.

LAMB - WIDE BEAM SHEAR WAVE

Figure 1. Transducer Types.

The Lamb wave transducer has its

crystal parallel to the pipe wall. It An electronic control unit provides the
produces a large coherent pulse with transducer pulse excitation and allows
many rays launched at the same angle. for many forms of measurement output.
The receiving transducer only needs one Gas velocity is the base variable but this
of the rays to operate so that exact can be readily multiplied by pipe cross
transducer spacing is not critical. sectional area to develop actual flowing
volume. An accumulation of actual
Shear wave transducers have the crystal volume is available and there are
normal to the pipe wall or sort of interface programs that run in a laptop
vertical. That produces a small beam to extract data and provide diagnostics.
and alignment is important but this type Some of the interface programs such as
will function on heavy pipe wall more 6LHPHQV¶ 'DWDYLHZ DQG )OH[LP
than an inch thick. Snapview provide views of the
operating waveforms with trigger points
The piezoelectric effect in quartz rock for help with measurement quality
crystal is used to produce a short sound assurance. See the following figure 2.
pulse. An electrical pulse excites the On the envelope waveform, the leading
transducers and the crystal responds baseline should be clean and the pulse
with a physical ringing response much should have a well-defined sinusoidal
the same as a hammer on a bell. That form with an exponential rise and fall in
sound level is transferred to the pipe about five cycles.
wall and throughout the gas stream.
 3

Figure 2. Clean Baseline, Pulse Waveform

To install a clamp-on meter, the pipe reflected from some pipe discontinuity
wall thickness must be measured. Use such as a flange or weld and returned
an ultrasonic thickness gage or Flexim through the pipe to a sensor but at a
provides the wall thickness random time. This kind of interference
measurement within the control unit. can be seen in the waveform as leading
Transducers cover a range of wall baseline noise.
thickness. A set of three of four types
will cover common gas piping. Once a The transducers are usually fixed to the
transducer is selected, pipe size and pipe with large hose clamps and
wall data is entered into the control unit mounting frames. The photograph
and transducer spacing is determined. below, figure 3, shows two transducer
There may be damping material pairs in reflect mount. Each beam
required for a given transducer. bounces off the opposite side of the pipe
Damping material is a self-adhesive and travels through the gas twice. Each
flexible membrane that provides an pass is in an opposite direction
impedance match between the pipe and providing some cancellation of flow
the high impedance transducer. profile defects and is the best manner
Damping material also reduces for accurate volume determination.
synchronous noise that might be
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Figure 3. Transducers mounted on pipe in reflect mode.

The black material under the make use of its excellent repeatability
transducers is damping material helping for before and after kinds of test data.
to match the transducer to the pipe. A
couplant grease is used on the active Beyond simple volume measurement,
transducer face. Both the couplant and the unit can detect flow profile defects
the damping material are used to through rotational analysis. This
improve signal transfer to the pipe. technique operates the unit in a direct
single pass through the pipe and then
Once the transducers are mounted, and measurements are taken at multiple
wired to the control unit, measurement positions around the pipe. If the flow is
can begin. The control unit can provide fully developed and symmetrical as
data files as output to a laptop computer required for custody transfer, all of the
similar to log files on custody meters measurements at any position will
and it can provide pulse rate output to produce the same flow rate. Profile
feed an RTU for correction to standard distortions will show up as variable
conditions. flow rate for the different positions
around a pipe. Eight positions are
The real challenge is in choosing the recorded and flow rate must be held
experiment. Often it is important to constant or the data can be normalized
have a plan and know what is expected to average flow rate during the data
before data is recorded. Wise collection period. The polar plot,
placement of the clamp-on meter can figure 4, below shows typical field data
for a twelve-inch meter. The clamp-on
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was mounted near the inlet to the run lengths. Measurement error is
ultrasonic meter. This data resulted likely for this profile.
from a side inlet elbow and short meter

ROTATIONAL DATA
Twelve-Inch Pipe
Flow Rate acfh

1
TOP OF PIPE of Pipe
35000

30000
8 25000 2

20000

15000

10000
Clamp-On
5000

7 0 3
Sick REF
PLANE of INLET ELBOW
FLOW FROM THIS SIDE

6 4

Figure 4. Rotational Data Looking upstream.

There are a few installations that are

difficult. Paint can be a problem if it is But once an installation is working, it
extensively cracked and crazed. One will function for a long time. Some
epoxy coating was not fully cured and it have five years on line. There are some
absorbed ultrasonic energy. Even an installations on mainline applications
ultrasonic wall thickness gage would such as segmentation meters that must
not function with the spongy coating. be made below grade. Invariably, the
Sometimes, it is necessary to re-grease pit fills with water but the units keep on
the transducers and try again. Some operating. The photograph below,
pipe steel seems to have regions where figure 5, shows permanent transducers
the grain structure is a problem. Often mounted on a submerged mainline and
moving a few inches corrects the the clamp-on meter functions the same
problem. as when dry.
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Figure 5. Siemens Installation in service under water.

Also in pipeline segmentation meter

application and in storage fields, the
flow may change direction. That is no
difficulty at all. The flow just indicates
flow direction with a plus or minus
sign.

Clamp-on metering can do anything a

wetted ultrasonic meter can do. The
limit is user imagination.