Abstract
Orifice flow meters are frequently used for measuring gas flow in gas industry. However, to insure the accuracy of the measurement, a certain length of the meter run at the upstream of the flow meter is required. The objective of this study is to analyze flow measurement errors of the orifice flow meter quantitatively for shorter lengths of the meter runs than those suggested in the standard manuals with variation of diameter ratio( $\beta$ ratio) and flow rate. The test results showed that the flow measurement errors of the orifice meter were inversely proportional to the diameter ratio. In other words, when the diameter ratio is 0.3 and 0.7, the measurement error is $-7.3\%$ and $-3.5\%$, respectively. the main reason of the measurement error is due to the swirl effect from the configuration of the meter run at the upstream of the flow meter. In case the length of the meter run is shorter than that suggested in the standard manuals, the swirl effect is not removed completely and it affects the flow meter's performance. As mentioned above, the less the pipe diameter ratio, the more the flow measurement error. It means that the swirl effect on the orifice meter increases as the $\beta$ ratio decreases.