Simulation guarantees precise measurements

Rota Yokogawa GmbH & Co. KG is a leading, traditional manufacturer of Coriolis flowmeters. The main challenge in developing these devices is to ensure the most accurate measurement possible regardless of the surrounding process parameters. For this purpose, device-typical compensation factors are determined, which are processed in the firmware of the devices. Typically, these compensation parameters have to be determined individually for each detector series and each design variant with great experimental effort. With FEM simulations, a workflow should be worked out in order to obtain statements about the measuring accuracy of future devices as a function of the process parameters as quickly as possible in the development phase.

 The workflow for FEM simulation, which is very effective and practical, saves valuable time and enormous costs compared to the previous approach in development. Until now, each design had to be built for real tests and high-precision calibrations under various controlled conditions were necessary to determine the flow process parameters. Now, both the influences of the environmental parameters and the boundary conditions in the manufacturing process can be analyzed quickly and efficiently for complete series of devices and corresponding constructive measures can be derived immediately.

Instead of a costly fluid-structure interaction analysis, a coupled thermal, structural-mechanical and harmonic investigation of the device designs was carried out with Ansys Mechanical, taking into account the Coriolis force contributions from the pipe flow. The integrated approach using the finite element method alone resulted in a significant computing time advantage. In experimental comparison the high precision of the simulation was proven, so that all relevant design parameters can be predicted with sufficient accuracy. By integrating the dynamic FEM model into the system simulation environment (Ansys Simplorer), the influence of control, regulation and measurement technology can also be included in the investigations.