Assestement of a innovative high-tech flow-meter

Goal of the thesis is to develop a meter for the measurement of the instantaneous flow rate at high pressures (the experimental tests oscillate between a minimum pressure of 600 bar and a maximum of 1800 bar). The research and studies took place with the collaboration of the Rabotti company and all experimental tests were conducted in the laboratory of the Energy Department of the Polytechnic. The meter is based on the detection of pressure, carried out by means of two high-performance piezoresistive transducers, in two points placed at an appropriate distance along a sufficiently rigid duct with a constant diameter where diesel, petrol or mineral oil flows inside. The instrument to be designed has a high technological content and brings a significant innovation in terms of the market since there are no reliable instruments on the market capable of evaluating the instantaneous flow rate in liquid flows characterized by large levels of pressures. The experimental readings of the pressure and temperature sensors are sent to an acquisition card for high and low frequency signals and are then processed by a cRIO platform. The platform initially performs a filtering and then determines the instantaneous flow rate associated with the liquid flow that passes along the duct. The cRIO platform is also able to carry out post-processing concerning the flow signal. The primary goal is to implement an advanced filtering technique to correct the results that the platform returns. The methodology must take into account many parameters: processing times, general efficiency, reliability and complete generality (having to do with numerous experimental tests, each test will have its own behavior and introducing a general methodology is not easy). Furthermore, since it is not possible to perform a validation with a master type meter, in addition to the realization of the prototype, a number-experimental methodology will be defined for its validation. The experimental tests on the prototype will be carried out on fuel supply systems for internal combustion engines as they allow to reach high pressures. After the implementation of the filtering techniques we will pass from the modeling (using CAD-3D Solidworks) of the meter to the actual physical design. All production processes for the engineering of the final product will be analyzed and studied. The thesis can therefore be divided into two large sections: in the first a methodology was introduced to identify a technique for the correct filtering of the meter results and in the second everything was integrated with the modeling and mechanical design of the meter itself.