Air from oil

Sensors

Simulation

Our engineers have various simulation options for obtaining initial comprehensive findings on the flow situation in the system. These go from basic CFD calculations and multi-phase simulations - e.g. for simulating the sloshing in the tank - to heat transfer simulations. You can find more information here.

Test bench & field measurements

RT has developed various methods for checking the air separation capacity of a system in realistic conditions. On the one hand, systems can be measured at the in-house test facility and be quantified, and on the other hand, high-quality measurement equipment also enables measurements directly at the machine in the field.

Light intensity measurement

The light measuring system used consists of two photometer sensors and one stationary 2-channel device with integrated data logger. The measuring rate is 10 measurement points per second.

The light intensity is measured in lux. If the light intensity changes due to shadows of air bubbles in the oil, this can be used as an indication of the air content. It is not possible to determine the absolute air content.

These measuring instruments can also be used to record load curves relating to the contamination of oil with air in real machines and analyse them.

Visual determination of the size of the air bubbles

The main parameter for analysing the separation of air is the size of air bubbles. To obtain results, an acrylic glass adapter was set up in the oil flow for the photographical determination of the sizes of the air bubbles.

Mass flow rate measurement

The Coriolis force was discovered by Gustav Gaspard Coriolis around 1830 and is named after him. It can be described as an inertia force that is applied to a mass moving vertically to a rotation axis in a rotating reference system. This force is used for the mass flow rate measurement

Advantages of the measurement method:

Utilisation of inertia forces when oil flows through a swinging pipe, thus:

  • low pressure drop
  • Simple design, only two welding points
  • Measurement of emulsions and suspensions possible